Posts

Dissertation Update: Getting Through Chapter 4

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Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes It's been a while--both since I posted (just under 2 months--yikes!) and since my last update on my dissertation progress  (for newer readers, you can check out the full series on my PhD here ). In the six months since I last wrote about this, things continued to progress--though, of course, never at the speed I want them to.  But such is the case both because life happens and other decisions I make.  Still, I'm excited about where I am. Image Source:  Karsten Würth Let's recap 2023! The first half of 2023 was digging into the data, exploring it and getting the contours of the data after collecting the interviews and transcribing them in late 2022.  In my methodology, phenomenography, there is a bit of reading through the transcripts holistically to get a full sense of what's in the data and then moving into finding differences in the experiences of participants (relating to the research questions).  What I'm doing is building out w

2023--What a Year?

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Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes This post is less about the highlights of 2023 and more about the things that I experienced and learned about myself through this year.  2023 was a powerful, intense, rewarding, and challenging year for me. It had more in store for me than I could realize and I came out the other end feeling more comfortable and capable in many ways--deeper in my self-understanding and grounded in my choices.  So what did the year entail?   The Start of the Year January began with the passing of my spouse's grandmother, Shirley, which included a week of lots of hospital visits, a few overnight vigils, and finally, her passing in her home. Though sad, she also died peacefully in her home surrounded by family, which at past 90 years, is something we could all wish for.  The experience had echoes of my own father passing in its progression and the kind of decisions and care needed. I think that helped me be a level of support and insight that helped my spouse and he

Trauma Callbacks Can Repeat or Rhyme

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Estimated Reading Time: 21 minutes Imagine trying to write a very simple email to a colleague to explain that you do not have time to do something.  How much time would you spend on it?  2 minutes?  5 minutes? 15 minutes? 45 minutes?  When it took me to write this email to a colleague in early November, I had a stark realization that something bigger was going on...and that thing's name was traumatic reaction.   Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash Preamble (or where I explain why I'm writing what I'm writing) For pieces like this, I hem and haw a lot before deciding to write it and share it more largely and permanently with the world. In a world of an attention-driven economy of media that values novelty and sensationalism, I worry that some may think these posts are an attempt to get attention or even more troubling, indirect asks for help. Those are easy places to land, especially if you do not know me (and maybe even if you do know me?). Ultimately, I can assure myself, even

The COVID Aftermath

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Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes Back in mid-September, my COVID ticket finally got punched--2.5 years was a good run.  It was inevitable.  Not because it had to happen but because it had been a long time since my partner, I, my place of employment, my family--nearly everyone--decided to give up on navigating a world where we took care to remember the most vulnerable are left to have to do all the extra labor of caring and protecting.  It's a very common and unfortunate way we exist and something that lots of folks with disabilities of all sorts know all too well. And COVID knocked me on my ass.  I started to really notice symptoms on a Thursday, but in hindsight realized there were symptoms 2-3 days before that I hadn't realized or just assumed were other things. As Thursday turned into Friday, it was evident that I was sick but the first and second tests I took showed negative results. By the end of Friday, I was full chills, aches, brain fog/headaches, and just utterly mise

Recent Publication: 10 Ways Technology Leaders Can Step Up and In to the Generative AI Discussion in Higher Ed

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Estimated Reading Time: minutes While my Substack, AI+Edu=Simplified is the place where I share thoughts and developing work on generative AI in education, I still look to use this blog as a curation space for publications elsewhere that I can pull into one place, namely under the category, " Other Publications '.  So even when there are publications related to generative AI, they are going to be mentioned here as well.   In this case, it's a collaborative piece that I wrote after a webinar I did back in April.  It was one of those pieces that came together very quickly and clearly in that I was able to get a good chunk of it together and decided to see if the person hosting the event (Stan Waddell) also wanted in on the work.  Very quickly, we put together this piece of advice to tech leaders around how to support their institutions.   You can read the full article in the EDUCAUSE Review:  10 Ways Technology Leaders Can Step Up and In to the Generative AI Discussion in

It finally happened...I started a Substack on AI & Education

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes Don't hate--I know, it feels cliche and late to game to start a Substack--especially have been such a loyal user for blogger for over 12 years and 2000 posts !  But don't worry--I'm still sticking around here! Created with Bing Image Creator. Prompt: “human and robot sitting at a table across from each other in noir style with a neon aspect to it” I am starting a substack called AI+Edu=Simplified and I'm also continuing with By Any Other Nerd.  Why run 2 writing platforms?  Well, I've been posting lots of AI stuff here and while it's normal for me to focus on different topics/projects in this blog, I think the work I'm doing around generative AI is substantial and ongoing enough that creating a different space for that is necessary.   What I like about By Any Other Nerd is its eclecticness.  It's a my wonderful hodgepodge of things big and small in my life.  I like that I've used it as a place to work through the p

My Time on The Wheel of Time

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Estimated Reading Time: 21 minutes Content Warning : Discussions of self-harm. I recently finished reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson for the last 3 novels). It's literally something that has taken over 26 years. Which is to say that it took me longer to read the series than how long it took the series to be fully published (24 years; 1990-2013). But I finally finished it.   This might be one of those examples of the sunk cost fallacy or the opposite? Not sure. I know for me the read was worth it not because it was a really great series per se but because of how it fits into my own history of reading, growing, and changing over the past 26 years. How to Read This Post What follows is me just sharing about my history of reading it and what I thought about it finally finished.  What then follows is a deeper history of reading and how this series fits in with my own growth and development.  All of that is to say, if you want to stay on the surface