It was great meeting you all today. I felt that our interbeing had very good dynamics.
I'll expand this post tomorrow, but for now I want to give you some further documents I should have given you today. This is a fuller explanation of the various stages/parts of the 390 proposal you are developing. This is the same document, but written for creative projects (which only applies to one of you I believe). And this is the really important one, which is a grid of all the class assignments. I hope to print all of these for you next week, but in the meantime take a look. Julie has requested samples of completed 390 proposals, but I need to make sure that I have the permission to show them... what I do have for now are samples of completed 490 projects, a very good one and a less good one.
Oh and if you do figure out how to get on Google Docs and you want to share something to me, my Gmail/Docs name is aaron.mclean.winter _at_ gmail.com <--- I can't type the @ there or I'll get spam emails.
Because I am planning to do a case study of a struggling arts organization, I am starting my research with how to write a case study. The section of the library I found that deals with case studies seems to be in the education section; I may need to redo my search. The general text I am using, Doing Case Study Research by Dawson R. Hancock and Bob Algozzine, indicates that the type of study I will be doing is intrinsic, or focusing on an organization. I have also been researching how to do a competitive analysis, which will allow me to use techniques referenced in my management classes. Finally, I have either forgotten how to get links to articles in The Journal of Arts, Management and Society from the library, or I will no longer be able to. This is a setback that I will have to overcome. Last semester, a librarian showed me tricks to find articles that our library doesn’t have access to. I may need to ask her for a refresher course.
ReplyDeleteMy current goal is to study whether the newspaper, in its print form, will survive. Technology has transformed our world immeasurably. In the process, it has changed how we obtain our news and come close to destroying the publishing industry.
ReplyDeleteI believe I could approach this several ways. One is from the perspective of someone who is concerned that much of the news that many people read is opinion-based, as opposed to objectively-presented. In my Writing Across the Media class, which consists of 27 mainly traditional students, our professor asked how we obtain our news. Three people stated that they read a printed newspaper, but not daily. This question has also arisen in other classes. One place where many traditional students report that they obtain their news is from watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. These revelations could be viewed as a cultural issue with profound political ramifications.
Busy people need ways to become more efficient. But in a world of sound bites, only getting part of the story can twist the facts into a ball of lies. Remember Shirley Sherrod?
A broad topic it is. I must narrow it down and find the best way to study this issue. Research intimidates me. I am grateful that there are people who work in the library to whom I may bring some joy.
Im really in tuned with Gail's subject matter. My fiancee is a free-lance journalist who now primary publishes online with a few feature magazine print stories. The state of the written news is decline... (jeremiah foxwell)
ReplyDeleteMy topic centers around the impact/importance of soft skills in technology management. Ultimately I would like to gather the appropriate supporting data to create an assessment tool for project managers. There are a lot of scenarios and variables at this point: whether I am could “match” the right managers to specific types of projects (which would assume I could categorize both managers and projects), or if I could define a model for a successful blend of technical and soft skills that every technology manager needs. Proving any of this out may be a challenge from a time perspective, as most major projects take more than a year.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind, can the rest of you please write "Research Log #1" somewhere in your message if that's what you intend it to be? And props to Jeremiah for getting some cross-dialogue going. My wife is a (former?) journalist and believe me, we have lived this whole situation too... strangely it could also be argued that written news may be advancing or at least moving sideways as a quality content-source, but it is most certainly plummeting as a career or as a business model!
ReplyDeleteResearch Log #1: My two BIS concentration are Business and Criminal Justice.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in the “business” environment for many years now, and was pleased that GMU had a program that would allow me to combine the business necessity program (for work) and study a field that has always interested me – criminal justice. In combining these two fields, I became very interested in Counterfeit material early last year when the FBI did a presentation on security, cyber crimes and counterfeit material. I had always assume that counterfeit was about money or the cheap knockoffs that we see the street vendors selling but when I realized that counterfeiting included medication and computer parts, I needed to know more. I would like my research to look at counterfeiting in the Aerospace / Military Industry answering - What is counterfeit material - digging into the scope of the problem, and why it exist. The controls company and the government play in prevent counterfeiting and how it helps / hurts the economy.
(Research Log #1) Defining the Middle Eastern region is a difficult aspect of my research. I have tried to define the scope of my focus by the spoken Arabic language, but this often in contrary to the published Arab regional maps. For example Turkey and Iran are both Middle Eastern nations where a large amount of minorities speak the Arabic language, so for national security needs America needs to know the spoken Arabic dialects there, but they consider themselves Persians and Ottamens not Arabs. George W. Bush published his own image of the Middle East to support his post-9/11 image of the region to include Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Even though this is direct conflict with every other concept of this region, the Global War on Terror regional definiation superscedes other maps and contanminats statistics. When a news source or a scholarly publication claims that 8 million people have been displaced throughout the Middle East because of violence I have to also understand how they are defining this autonomous region. This is frustrating. To deal with this I have to do specific country research not broad regional searches. (Jeremiah)
ReplyDeleteResearch Log #1: During my studies of communication, law, and government I have become very aware that there is a disconnect between normal everyday communication and formal legal communication. Both try to accomplish the same thing by delivering a message but the interpretation of the message is where the problems arise. During my research project I want to explore ways to make this communication gap close so there is a better overall understanding of legal communication. One idea I had was to prepare some sort of checklist or guide to reviewing and signing legal documents. What happens a lot of the time is contracts are signed as fast as they are passed across the and afterwards you end up leaving with questions about what you just agreed to.
ReplyDeleteResearch Log # 1: Parents of children who have language impairment are often concerned about the impact the language impairment could have if their children are learning two languages simultaneous. Some parent believe children should only learn their native language (home language) to avoid further complications and some others believe children could actually benefit from learning both languages as sometimes the language impairment only appears in one of the languages. My idea is to do a case study where I could analyze in which setting, monolingual or bilingual, children tend to do better in overcoming their language impairment and how parents can play a role in helping their children success in school. I know this topic is still very broad as I try to narrow it down as I research more into it.
ReplyDeleteMy topic is related to Human Resources the area in which I work and also to Psychology. As I mentioned in class I would like to study how employees who are sent to work and live in a non-Western country adapt to the new culture. When I started thinking about the subject of my project I realized that I first need to figure out how to do research, basically learn how to be more systematic about my research rather than just search in different online databases. Keeping a log will also be hurdle since I’m not used to it but I think it will keep me focused and make my time more productive. An option I have not tried before is talking to a librarian since I prefer to do my own research online but I am sure they will be a useful resource as it happened to Julie.
ReplyDeleteLike Gail, I also need to narrow down my topic which is too broad.
The first source in my research were the materials from my Social Psychology class about social influence, self-regulation, social cognition, information processing and attitude formation, plus the textbook we used in that class, Fiske, S., T. (2004). Social Beings: A Core Motives Approach to Social Psychology.
I believe the theories can be a starting point for my project.
I forgot to add that the comment above is my Research log #1 (sorry, still getting used to blogging...!)
ReplyDelete(Research Log #1): I am still in the process of narrowing down some options. But, I am planning on doing a creative project that will most likely involve filming two to three short plays or scenes from plays and then from there showing the difference of film and theater.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how difficult this might prove itself to be though. I also plan to look at some master teachers of the art such as Uta Hagen. I plan to see how her techniques differ through stage and film acting. I have a difficult time coming up with writing ideas and putting them on paper most of the time.
-Nina
Excellent, keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteResearch Log # 1: For my topic I would like to address commercial micro loans (as opposed to micro loans in the form of aide) from both an economic and business perspectives and what types of impact they have on local and regional markets. If I have to narrow this down I might look specifically at post conflict areas. I really would like to also address this topic from a cultural perspective (with a big and little “c”) as culture is part of my major, I am just interested in it. I believe narrowing the scope of my research is going to be a major challenge for my research… but I am willing to take it on!
ReplyDeleteResearch Log #1: My concentration combines sociology, education, government & international politics and conflict analysis & resolution ("Global Conflict Resolution Studies"). I am specifically interested in human rights, but in order to understand human rights, one must explore conflict, and in order to understand conflict, one must explore root causes that typically lie in social injustice. I am growing increasingly interested in water rights (adffordable, accessible, clean water). Potable water is growing in scarcity, and many conflicts are cropping up because of lack of access or abuse of access. I have looked into the topic just enough to see how complicated it is and am excited to approach it from a research inquiry perspective.
ReplyDeleteResearch Log #1
ReplyDeleteIdeally, as I continue to work as a supervisor for General Accounting Department, the tasks covers all phases of accounting procedures within the organization. My supervisory job requires me to train, motivate, guide, develop training skills, develop customer relation, review and perform job evaluation, counsel, design course of action, game plan, project master plan and typically supervise employees in all aspect of general accounting procedures. I always aim for maximum proficiency from my staff members. However, all these mentioned above requires good communication skills. More importantly, it also requires emotional intelligence. I like my department to have good reputation within the organization. I also work directly with the Internal Revenue Service, I am the legal and authorized signer for all the company’s tax returns. I comply directly with the Social Security Service and various local and state tax department regulations. Typically, the major role is in paying employees accurately, dealing with complex payroll for multi- state employees, filing and paying taxes timely. I also prepare by assimilating and compiling all year end information for filing year end W-2’s , 1099 R’s for Disabled, Retirees and Misc. The cumbersome part of these tasks is meeting deadlines: the mandatory filing of tax returns. Errors on returns and late filing could result to costly noncompliance penalties IRS is very stern with their policy. Penalty fees can become very outrageous. Another added responsibilities involved general ledger accounts- maintained and balanced, budget is carefully analyzed and prepared, vendor relation and contracts and etc. Our company’s (FCWA) main objective is to serve and satisfy 650,000 families within the Fairfax County community: this is only made possible through our extraordinary work, our maximum and peak performance and dedication to provide our customers the best quality service.
Incorporating all the challenging tasks above requires substantial knowledge and discipline. That is why I want to complete my interdisciplinary studies in Organizational Management and Communication.
Research Log #1: Iris White
ReplyDeleteMy concentration disciplines are Art and Psychology. I am a trained interior designer and I feel that art and psychology are intrinsic elements of interior design. You might wonder why that it. Our sense of well-being or lack thereof often is in direct correspondence to our environment. Environments like our homes can have mood altering affects. I would like to find out what it is that makes us feel good or bad. Intuitively we know what this might be: Color, pieces of art, etc. can have powerful reactions on the inhabitant, often on unconscious levels. I have seen many places that say "look, how big and impressive I am!" And this reaction is what many architects, contractors and designers have in mind when building homes (often given unintelligent advice to their clients). These spaces can leave owners feeling isolated and with a lack of intimacy. Their should be more than meets the eye and not only style, trends and structural details are what makes a nurturing home. I am interested in creating homes that pay attention to the history, interests and personality of the owner and at the same time induce a sense of harmony and creativity.
Research Log #2
ReplyDeleteSo I began to work my way through technical management resources, and found several a on my topic. I was initially somewhat annoyed that someone had already written 'my paper', but after I read serveral of these I discovered they were good resources to start, but are not at the depth I am looking for as yet. But overall I am encouraged.
Research Log #1
ReplyDeleteGood evening everyone. Instead of doing a research log, I am going to talk about how easy it is to get derailed from an illness or emergency. Over the past few weeks, I have been horribly ill and could not come at a worse time considering it was the beginning of the semester and I am already two weeks behind in class work.
During the Labor Day weekend, I was rushed to the ER with an extremely high temperature, chills and burning up body temp. After further investigation, the doctors were unsure what caused the illness and provided simple medications. Within the next few days I began to get worse and had to return to the hospital. The initial prognosis was my appendix, but after further tests and a CT scan there was a greater issue with my abdominal section and kidneys. Two days later I was called by the doctor who urged me to pick up new meds from the pharmacy and I was diagnosed with an internal disease at which I would take four horse pills a day for the rest of my life. Unfortunately the pills caused side effects that made me worse than I was so I remained on the antibiotics.
The following week, I was still very ill and unable to sit up because of the abdominal and kidney pains. After three more trips to the hospital and blood work every two days, the doctors narrowed it down to a specific strand of the disease. I returned on Monday of this week for a follow-up and more labs and received a call the next day stating all my levels were back to normal and I did not have the disease they confirmed earlier.
During this entire process, I managed to send very few emails out, but I have able to keep all of my professors updated on my condition. Each has worked with me independently allowing me to catch up on all assignments missed. Also during this entire process, I am still recovering from shoulder surgery which also limited my comfort and increased my pain.
Today however, I am back in shape to attend class and get back on the ball. The shoulder still causes troubles, but I am allowed to manage that with proper medications again. I look forward to working with everyone and completing BIS 390.