Despite a recent post on this blog proclaiming that was committed to more frequent entries, it seems I've fallen off a bit again. I missed an entire month, which is not ideal. It is the case that I worked half-days in July, but the bigger reason is that I've been trying something new and it's taken a lot more time that I had allocated.
I've spent the past three weeks working primarily on writing and revising, to the detriment of consistent blogging. This in itself is not remarkable, though it is very different from my usual slate of tasks. I'm working with co-authors in an attempt to publish our findings from an ethics class last spring. It's certainly not exceptional to submit an article to a journal, and I'd say it's even odds that it will not be accepted in the end. No, the part that interested me was the process, and how I feel about it in retrospect.
When I made a switch in jobs last January, I had a list of things that I wanted to try that were not really possible with my former job: grant writing and experimenting with collaboration and communication tools were a few of them, along with trying my hand at academic journal writing. Academic publishing is an odd sort of writing, with it's own arcane style; it's formulaic, but not in a negative way. If I were reading 20 of these things per week, I'd want some consistency in formatting as well. Regardless, it's something that I have no experience in creating. My co-authors did have more experience, but early on I asked that we agree I would do the bulk of the work and only seek help when I felt stuck. Consequently, as a novice every step took a long time, much longer than I thought it would. But here's the interesting part: it was frustrating, difficult, and fun. And we're already planning the next one.
Those of us who have taken any intro learning theory classes are familiar with the Zone of Proximal Development, the notion that learning happens within the space between what we can do for ourselves and what we can only accomplish with the help of more competent peers or mentors. There are all kinds of examples that pre-date the creation of the label (including apprenticeships, which in my view is how most academic researchers learn their skills) but the main idea is that we should stretch, but have a Sherpa in case we need one.
As we were getting the methods and findings section outlined, I noticed something: the students from our class felt exactly like I did about stretching. We designed a final group video project for the students that relied heavily on the PSU Digital Commons and required a ton of work. The survey data indicated that almost none of the students had any experience at all with video. All the groups scrambled to finish. All of them, at one point, emailed or came in person to grumble about how much time everything took. And yet, on the exit survey their responses to the video project read: too time-consuming; too much work; prefer it to more traditional assessments (paper or presentation); 80% recommend keeping the video project as a part of the class.
I've been as guilty as anyone else in bemoaning the underemployment/underutilization of people that is so rampant in the white-collar workplace these days, and my overall opinion hasn't changed much. But I will say that a foray into something in which you have little experience or confidence, while stressful, is exciting and meaningful. And if you have people around you to give you a nudge when you get stuck, you'll learn something. You'll have to.
I've spent the past three weeks working primarily on writing and revising, to the detriment of consistent blogging. This in itself is not remarkable, though it is very different from my usual slate of tasks. I'm working with co-authors in an attempt to publish our findings from an ethics class last spring. It's certainly not exceptional to submit an article to a journal, and I'd say it's even odds that it will not be accepted in the end. No, the part that interested me was the process, and how I feel about it in retrospect.
When I made a switch in jobs last January, I had a list of things that I wanted to try that were not really possible with my former job: grant writing and experimenting with collaboration and communication tools were a few of them, along with trying my hand at academic journal writing. Academic publishing is an odd sort of writing, with it's own arcane style; it's formulaic, but not in a negative way. If I were reading 20 of these things per week, I'd want some consistency in formatting as well. Regardless, it's something that I have no experience in creating. My co-authors did have more experience, but early on I asked that we agree I would do the bulk of the work and only seek help when I felt stuck. Consequently, as a novice every step took a long time, much longer than I thought it would. But here's the interesting part: it was frustrating, difficult, and fun. And we're already planning the next one.
Those of us who have taken any intro learning theory classes are familiar with the Zone of Proximal Development, the notion that learning happens within the space between what we can do for ourselves and what we can only accomplish with the help of more competent peers or mentors. There are all kinds of examples that pre-date the creation of the label (including apprenticeships, which in my view is how most academic researchers learn their skills) but the main idea is that we should stretch, but have a Sherpa in case we need one.
As we were getting the methods and findings section outlined, I noticed something: the students from our class felt exactly like I did about stretching. We designed a final group video project for the students that relied heavily on the PSU Digital Commons and required a ton of work. The survey data indicated that almost none of the students had any experience at all with video. All the groups scrambled to finish. All of them, at one point, emailed or came in person to grumble about how much time everything took. And yet, on the exit survey their responses to the video project read: too time-consuming; too much work; prefer it to more traditional assessments (paper or presentation); 80% recommend keeping the video project as a part of the class.
I've been as guilty as anyone else in bemoaning the underemployment/underutilization of people that is so rampant in the white-collar workplace these days, and my overall opinion hasn't changed much. But I will say that a foray into something in which you have little experience or confidence, while stressful, is exciting and meaningful. And if you have people around you to give you a nudge when you get stuck, you'll learn something. You'll have to.
Great stuff, Gary! I am thrilled to see that the new position is proving to provide you with opportunities to explore new professional and personal territory. For what its worth, I'm really proud of the way you are attacking these new opportunities. Change is tough and pushing beyond your comfort zone is even tougher. Looking forward to reading the article.
Thanks for the note Cole. It seems like a lot longer than 7 months since the job switch, and I'm starting to feel like I'm hitting a stride. We'll see what the fall semester holds, but it's definitely exciting to be working on this initiative.