A few weeks ago, I spent a valuable half hour or so with my course leader, talking about the educational research project that is designed to lead me to the topic of my dissertation. Up in smoke went all my previous lofty ideals about games and simulations in learning and the balance between those immersive environments and the increasing trend towards just-in-time, learner driven, random access (call it what you will) online learning resources.

Rats! Although I realise the practical issues would have been difficult, because I have not yet had any direct involvement with a blend that includes these delivery media. Quizzes and the like are the closest I have come. So far….

What she suggested however, was that I opt for an action research project. This makes sense. I am constantly seeking to drive my practice forward, but I don’t work within the education system or an organisation that gives me access to information about a cohort of learners. She recommended the Action Research website, which has proved interesting, if counterintuitive in terms of navigation.

Some useful things I have found on the site have been:

• Jean McNiff’s booklet: Action research for professional development: concise advice for new action researchers. The document is free to download – isn’t it wonderful that some researchers are so generous with their stuff? But then, as she says in the introduction to the third edition “I have learnt from Jack (Whitehead) the power of sharing ideas to generate new ones”
• A whole raft of action research theses, which, even if they don’t help me with the content of my own dissertation, will certainly inspire me towards a title and help me get a clearer idea of how to tackle things.
• Margaret Farren’s many publications around action research as well as around the sort of areas that interest me.
• Jack Whitehead’s writings - wow, this guy is prolific!
• A list of living theory theses. It’s fascinating to see the sort of topics that make acceptable PhD theses. I was tickled pink by Eleanor Lohr’s thesis title: Love at Work: What is my lived experience of love, and how may I become an instrument of love’s purpose? I haven’t actually read the thesis yet, but wow! Just wow! It fills me with hope that this can be regarded as academic writing.
• Action Research expeditions, which uses “the expedition as a metaphor for the processes of action research”

I have been delighted with the level of enthusiasm and passion evident in the materials. I was so afraid of having to translate my labrador-puppy-with-oversized-paws type enthusiasm and lack of panache into something erudite and urbane and, well, dry and dusty.

What I haven’t been able to establish is whether any of these folks blog. I shall have to ask. Of course, I am now brimming with enthusiasm and keen to meet them all in person.