Today's blogging may be displacement activity (like housework can be - though in my case obviously hasn't been recently).  We have a task to do in response to reading about research design approaches.  Fortunately, this relates to some of the stuff I was reading at the weekend when I was away from internet access.  However, I haven't read it all, just the stuff on ethnography and grounded theory which are probably the most likely to influence me. 

It would be interesting to try to think of different types of design in relation to the same research question and I think I'll tackle the task in this way.  I could perhaps try two research questions: a simple "obvious" one and one that I'm likely to want to consider for myself.  I'm now asking myself whether a tendency towards an interest in ethnography – combined with a resistance to "measuring" complex human things – is likely to determine the kind of research question I'm prepared to pursue.  I am conscious that I need to be more open to the range of approaches.

The debate about truth seemed slow to get going at first and now there is no stopping it.  I've contributed a few things and have nearly made several other observations but have stopped myself (I'm always interested when that happens).  In one case, i wanted to say something about Plato's Symposium (during our debate on Love) - but I felt it might be a thread killer.  In another, I wanted to add something but hadn't worked it through or had got into an internal contradiction. (I should note when this happens though.)

I haven't much time this morning - I should be marking, I'm packing to go to Aberdeen and I have to go for my train to go to work.  I'm writing hastily and all the time thinking about what this blog should "feel" like.  It's not really just a matter of transferring from Blogger - that's a different type of space.  It almost feels as though in it's in a different place (physical) in the web - which does suggest an intersubjective construction of the online world.

This sounds as though I'm going to want to keep two blogs going.  (But it'll be next week before I can do this.)

But the proliferation of reflection and discussion places is getting me to think about readership/audience.  I like the idea that one (possibly the main) reader is my future self - and that's easier when the blog isn't assessed. So I want to record what's uppermost on my mind in relation to being a student and how that affects what I do as well as who I feel I am.  But this isn't in isolation - the concurrent readership forms the community and context and I am likely to be their readers too.  This is where it differs from my public blog on Blogger, at least as it is to date.

And I want to make my blogs more stimulating for a reader too - so I need to work on that, in particular with more links and visuals.  Perhaps I'll start with a new photo; people will start to see I've been using the same photo for two years.

But for this first day, I'm just checking that it works and I can edit on it etc.  A bit like the digital equivalent of sharpening pencils and smoothing out page 1 of the notebook.  As far as research is concerned, I'm thinking about the online use of language shaping courses in a different way - and that does include non-use of language too.  But it's still very open.