With only a 500 word application to write in which I needn't be too specific (I think) to get into the PhD program at Sydney Uni in 2012, I want to take this time to read fairly widely and try to get some ideas from a range of writers and disciplines.
My Masters dissertation tried to be an online ethnography, looking at how people actually used a social network site in tertiary education, tracing it over almost a year. It used open-ended interview questions to get at preconceptions and working ideas people formed by using the site. I found that the interviews were much more interesting, aimed as they were at understanding how people perceived the site, what they wanted from it and what they decided it could do. My observations were useful for setting the scene, but it really was in asking that the really interesting ideas came through.
I'm interested in how people decide to use or not use online tools. The ideas of sensemaking and affordances. What makes something 'user friendly' or so intrinsic to people's needs that they persevere and put in the work to include it in their set of tools. As Norman puts it, the 'psychology of everyday things'. How reflection and social learning fit into education. Personal learning and the networks and online environments people create (or don't create) around themselves. How the built or provided online environment supports learning. How a strategy of technology use might be applied over the course of a program of study of several years. How to guide people (or help them develop their own strategies) in selecting and using technology for learning.
So, a bit of a jumble of generality, that will probably expand before getting to specifics.
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