Abstract for SCDL...Finally!

ABSTRACT:

Are my thoughts and actions as Program Chair facilitative of student support? To what extent have I achieved my targets? Do my explorations genuinely address student concerns or not? How am I making sense of student support at a distance? In my first year as a fulltime faculty member of the pioneer distance institution in the Philippines, I was given the task to manage the Associate in Arts Degree, an undergraduate program with the biggest and most diverse student population of the UP Open University. Three years after, I see the need to reflect on how I have fulfilled my responsibilities as Program Chair alongside exploring varied ICT platforms in order to address student concerns. This study narrates this three-year journey. Using a personal narrative, I shall attempt to analyze and examine my actions through an in depth analysis of student queries, email correspondence, bloglike narratives, virtual community forum posts, and letters to staff and direct supervisors. In doing so, I hope to critically examine my experiences and in the process evolve a disposition in program management and contribution to student support initiatives. This qualitative study mirrors my ongoing struggles and journey as a junior faculty member in an academic organization equally determined to address student concerns at all levels. It hopes to contribute to the university's community of practice by giving voice to a program chair's struggles, evolving identity and understanding of what it truly means to support students.

Auto ethno of which is which?

After doing more read, I am unsure as to whether my current topic is the one for auto-ethno which is worth writing about. Auto-etho may also mean, SPN=scholarly personal narrative which has already been around.

I came across another interesting site: http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/search/results

Lots of writings about the making of autoethnoes.

Here's another idea of an autoethno as I, myself, a teacher.
This is about looking at my current school's curriculum and narrating how I managed to arrive at this kind of curriculum--curriculum making as teacher's meaning making. The paper will also deal with previous engagements with curriculum making in the hope of surfacing lessons learned and critical learning points in my journey as a teaching making meaning out of teaching practice--specific to curriculum making.

So how do I make up my mind then?

Random Thoughts

Here I go again. It's general cleaning time. I'm set to sort and dispose stuff frpm kitchen storage and work room. It's a Sunday and these thoughts flow:
-a CMS on Filipino Online: w/ Aklat Adarna Publications to lead it, alongside these elements: forum for quick online lessons; content sharing of teacher made materials; content sharing of lessons based on Adarna books; latest news and research re Filipino language
-survey progam managers/teachers and parents of gr 6-8/ Middle Years--arguments for and against it
-research on blended design of online teaching-learning for middle years
-research on virtual high schools
-renew membership in ASCD and NCSS
-curriculum exhibit of Builders' School at Educ

Gahhd...what a New Year for a mid-lifing woman.