Week 6 Summary

This week we had our first lab meeting with the GoToMeeting software - it worked great! I think everyone is very relieved that we have something that works for conference calls and also lets everyone share a computer screen. It let me show students an example of an ecomap and word documents. I am excited to try it next quarter when we get to the data analysis portion of the project, and we can all do quantitative and qualitative analyses together.

Students are working on their final practice interviews with an older adult this week. The faculty will review each one and (hopefully) give the student permission to go on to the real interview. Next week we may be starting to get some data!

As hopefully you have seen, we are asking readers of the blog to take a short survey. Why are we doing this? There are several reasons. One, we would like to get a feel for the usefulness of the blog not only for our student researchers but also for others who are reading it. Two, a research blog, particularly one that is associated with an online lab is a new, cutting edge phenomenon. We would like to be able to publish an article on the use of the blog, but need to get clear understanding of what you, the reader, are getting out of it. You probably are not aware of it – but we have around 100 readers of the blog everyday! Which leads to the third reason for the survey, we would like to know what you like and don’t like it in it, so we can make sure we are answering your needs.

So why should you take the survey, if you have not done so (and if you have, thanks!)? You have been reading about research – here is a chance to be a participant and see what it feels like. We will also share our findings with our readers at the end of the project; you will be able to get a feel for how your opinions are similar or different than others’.

Which brings me to the final point I would like to make this week, several people have mentioned they hesitate to ask questions or make comments in the blog because “they are just students” or “I just like to hear about the project.” We are doing the blog for you, the reader; we would love to hear your questions or thoughts. As I mentioned in the lab this week, there are really no “right” answers (or questions) when we look at research articles or the blog. You come to this moment with a unique perspective and insights that perhaps we have not previously considered. Who knows your ideas may shape our next project or lead you to ideas for a dissertation!

Lee Stadtlander