The best laid plans

Forgive me cyberspace for I have been slack. It has been...ummm...several months since my last confession. The writer's mantra of write and write often has sadly been ignored. And will probably continue to be ignored for the next couple of months.

Today I squeeze in a blog for the following reasons:
1. You may have heard there is a massive heatwave in Australia. A/C is very expensive but it is free at university. I am taking advantage of the cool and the desktop computer at my institution, escaping the heat.
2. My second daughter is two days overdue. She was due 8th January and I am trying to fill time. I decided that planning to work on my PhD for a day in the A/C at uni might bring her on. FALSE! Oh well. Maybe the new trampoline in the front yard might work....
3. Its time I wrote again. I am not going to get the opportunity (or be too baby-brain-dead) the next couple of months and I haven't written  a phrase since I left my curriculum writer's job for maternity leave just before Christmas.

The best laid plans....

The plan for the coming year is to finish this PhD. You may think I am mad to be a stay-at-home Mum and scholar at the same time but below I am laying out my best intentions:

Early childhood literature suggests that if your children do not see you writing, then they are less likely to enjoy or learn writing. Scribble and colouring develops writing skills and toddlers are more likely to do these activities if their parents participate with them. I am planning on setting my two year old up with colouring books and paper and we will share highlighters or crayons. I will review and refine my data analysis while my darling daughter imagines pink and yellow dinosaurs. I will hang butchers paper next to her chalkboard and we will draw on the walls together.

I went to a conference where a deputy principal explained how she managed her promotion over maternity leave. Her approach was to do her professional reading during night feeds. For me, tweets, blogs and literature will be read and lectures watched in the dead at night. I am determined to not allow my mind to turn to mush this time around.

I watched the tweets during Academic Writers Month and was inspired. I will probably not be able to write every day but possibly the two days per week my 2 year old is in in child care. Even if I just do one activity from this list:  http://getalifephd.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/seven-ways-you-can-write-every-day.html?m=1

Those of you with children are probably nodding your head sagely and saying "Riiiiiigghhht. We'll see" and I know why. I may only get one thing done on the above list but that is still one step closer to finishing my PhD. Without the plan, I may do nothing.

Part Time vs Full Time PhD

I fear this post will smell a little like a Hollywood starlet that insists she likes her curves before losing 20kg and feeling better than ever...

I am currently enrolled in a part time PhD but would love a scholarship that allows me to study full time but like the Hollywood starlet, I think the decision about the type of enrolment for a PhD depends on the roles you prefer to play.

I am first and foremost a mother. I fell pregnant with Ivy during my first year as a PhD student and presented my confirmation defense with swollen ankles. Issues about methodology and data collection were re-thought to fit with my new lifestyle. I collected my data off a social media site, which I could do from home (sometimes babe on breast). My methodology of analysis (phenomenogrpahy) suits periods of rest (good red wine). Both of these decisions were made, not because they were what I was passionate about (that came later) but because they suited me.

Secondly, I am a wife. Marriages are more important than PhDs. I would give my study up in a second if my patient husband needed me. I can always go back to study. Enrolment as a part time student gives me an expansive eight years. The flexibility associated with a part time PhD is invaluable. 

Thirdly, I am a career woman and mortgage holder. The financial well-being of my family is more important than my ability to call myself a Doctor. My PhD is patient. It waits for me to finish teaching each semester, greeting me with a grateful smile every time my students leave for their practicum. The advantages of networks and mentors in university teaching will be invaluable when I finally submit. The PhD will get done. Meanwhile, I massage my career.

Lastly, I am a PhD student. I love my study like a hobby. When I was overwhelmed by motherhood people suggested I give up my PhD and focus on something that would make me happy. My response was always that I want my PhD. Study is my little escape from the pressures of motherhood and mortgage repayments. I am aware I am a nerd.

The twist to my little story is that I am again pregnant, in write-up and crossing my fingers for a scholarship on 22nd June.  I plan to study full-time, chip away at my mortgage with my living allowance, have my thesis at draft stage and give birth by early January. For 6 more months my daughter will go to child care more often and I will study on weekends. Though it may seem my roles will reverse, the short time of tipping the balance will allow me wallow in my family for a few months before beginning a career as an academic.

If I don't get the scholarship, see above.

Blogs as lit-search tools

There is nothing new under the sun.

In 2010, all you knew was that you wanted to use Facebook to gather your data. Your hopes rose as time and time again you found literature that studied Facebook users and Facebook networks. Not once did you find a study that actually believed Facebook status updates are worthy pieces of data. Your ego is boosted by Ethic’s decision that your study proposal was necessary, despite the warnings from methodology experts. Ethics is wary but social media is not going away. You formulated a plan. You experimented with ways to archive the data. In 2011, you spent 10 months ploughing through the (often mind-numbing) eating, sleeping, partying and studying habits of 17-18 year olds. You began your analysis. You find out it’s been done before.

The real reason for writing a blog

1. PhDs and travel snaps have a lot in common. Everyone is interested but no one wants to sit through hundreds of photographs of beaches and waterfalls. Just as Facebook and Flickr have become our salvation from the dreaded slide show, this blog will become the online depot of stories I am itching to tell. Read or ignore at your will.

An open apology to Twitter

Publication in the academic world is very hard but necessary. How are you supposed to get your ideas out while bashing on the tightly shut iron door of the academic journal?

I have finally bitten the bullet, practiced my preaching and joined the "life world" of the tech savvy academic (yes, I will have a Twitter feed). 

For years I have looked at social media through the eyes of my high school students. They see the digital world as mundane. They hate blogging and Twitter and love Facebook and YouTube. I derided the "luddites" that thought students would love a lesson plan because they were blogging and got to use a computer (it is still journal writing). I smirked at PowerPoints as glorified OHTs and started using Prezi (a glorified OHT that whooshes).