When listening to George Veletsianos’ comments and answers to a couple of our cohort’s questions regarding his research and the process of building a research proposal, the concept of learning by doing really came to the forefront of my mind. As of today, I have not completed primary or secondary research of any kind.  The idea of spending years engaging academically and professionally with concepts and reading articles on databases before then formulating a research question frankly seem foreign to me.  The best way I feel to get good at researching is just to do it, do it, do it, and do it again.  Only then will I be able to learn from what works for me and what doesn’t, as well as how to apply what has been proven to work for others.

I though, like many of those in our program, have worked for years in education, teaching people of varied ages from all over the world (as well as in varied educational settings).  My experience of developing my craft will definitely help me to become aware of gaps and challenges that exist, and I trust that this awareness will lead me to questions, which I then can pursue and research.

George’s mention of his personal experience with female tech colleagues dealing with harassment and discrimination rang true for me.  I don’t get the impression that he was actively researching how women are treated in these environments, but his own experience, coupled with his reading of stories at Google, Uber and Gamergate provided an obvious avenue for him to pursue.  I am hopeful that the figurative ‘apple falling from the tree’ will happen to me, and will then lead me down a path to inspired and (hopefully) academically worthy research. 

 

Veletsianos, G. (2017, August 10). George Veletsianos on Research. Podcast retrieved from https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/page/view.php?id=245247