I am still writing my proposal, still?????? yes it is an ongoing task but I am hoping it is nearly there, after all I want to submit it next month! Wow that seems really soon now.

I am concentrating on PIM (Personal Information Management) aimed specifically at students right now because I have a lovely large body of students to bother with all my questions! Ultimately I think I would like to take my research out into the ‘real’ world and look at other groups but I have become used to the idea of working with students.

I was interested to hear that the government are ’scrapping’ Geography and History in junior schools (from the BBC), integrating those subjects into a new broader lesson. They are also introducing more ICT into the curriculum, misguidedly thinking that kids are proficient with all the web stuff already. I wonder what they are thinking of teaching them?

Well, actually I have been very busy! Really!

I have been getting involved with the student development program at MMU for us PGRs, having attended the compulsory induction workshop and actually enjoyed most of the day I came home full of enthusiasm to go to a few more. I signed up for the Endnote course run by the Library and the Intro to Quantitative Research Methods.

It was good to get together with the other researchers again for a natter about our work and of course to learn some new skills! I was very impressed with Endnote and have since bought my very own copy, I must spend a little time this week populating it with all my references. I don’t have any plans for any more workshops this side of Christmas break as I need to buckle down to some data collection and get my proposal submitted to the committee all going well in Jan 2009.

Apart from the official stuff I am also very chuffed to be involved with the other PGr students before the TIRI seminars, we get together for our very own ’shadow seminar’ series and discuss our work and get some help and feedback. So far they have been very helpful for me just starting out although I have been daunted by the workload at times it is good to know others are going through the same things I am.

On a more personal note, my Mum is over visiting from Spain this week so we will be out buying Christmas stuff and having a jolly good gossip about everything. Edward is quite well, we had a small hiccup as he got a minor infection but that’s being treated and the transplant stuff is all going to plan. James and Terry are the same as ever.

Well that’s all from me for now as I am in the middle of sorting out some pages for James to use for a school project……

Good news, well I think so anyway. I have finally defined my topic for my post grad studies and I am actually feeling like it is going somewhere. All that reading has paid off although I must confess the MMU Library must be half empty when I look at the huge pile of books I seem to have out at the moment.

The topic you ask???? oh yes, I will be looking into the factors influencing the decisions of students in retaining, organising and discarding information. Not too exciting to the average person maybe but it is what I like, sad I know! Anyway got to get back to my questionnaire- I only dropped by to check out a previous entry about bookmarking tools. Back soon, honest!

Terry and Sara outside the church

Originally uploaded by SaraCat

You might be surprised to see me out of my trusty jeans and in a dress for a change? We had a trip to Peterborough last month for the long awaiting wedding of Graham and Ange! After buying up the Fossil shop in Orlando I managed to pull together my outfit and was actualy strangely happy to be showing off my legs for a change.

Here is a photo of me and my lovely windswept husband outside the Longthorpe church where Graham did the deed.

Where have I been you ask? Busy beavering away at research for my PhD you suppose? Well of course I wish I could report that that’s exactly what’s kept me too busy to write my blog but no……I was on my jollies in Florida quite unexpectedly.

As I may have alluded in the past my little boy (or rather teenager i guess) is poorly with a kidney problem and we had booked to take him and my other ‘little’ boy to Florida for Christmas for a big treat. What could be better than Christmas with Mickey after all? Anyway long story short we found out last month that wouldn’t be possible and we had to either travel asap or cancel all together. Having plans and money put aside for all that shopping I was keen to go straight away especially knowing it could be 3 years or more before we can go away again.

We found out on the Thursday night, rearranged our plans and re-booked on the friday morning and were heading off the following Wednesday, I still can’t quite believe it! Anyway we had a fantastic time, did everything we had planned including swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove, Cirque Du Soleil, MNSSHP and all the other things you can read about on the friendly forum known as the Dibb. We feel we couldn’t have done it better and I even coped with the heat (around 85-90 every day) and getting the first suntan of my life.

The holiday will be remembered for the kids fascination with pin collecting and finding a Krispy Kreme donut store and the blisters from all that walking. The photos are available directly from Flickr or can be found on our family photo gallery. Hope you like them.

Anyway its back down to earth and time for me to crack on with the research. I feel like I am finally getting somewhere and have pinned down my topic to a more Phenomenographical approach to information seeking, looking at why rather than how and concentrating on the factors that influence decisions in the process rather than the process itself. More to follow in the coming weeks.

I am still here! Struggling to get my head around the business that is my new ‘job’ but getting on with it all the same. I am currently researching a number of topics to decide on one to take forward as a proposal for my Ph.D. I am trying not to get sidetracked but there is a lot of interesting research to wade through out there. I finally got my heands on a copy of the Mary Chelton book, Youth Information Seeking Behaviours, and I am determined to get it read before the weekend.

I attended the MMU Research Student Conference yesterday, supposedly a chance to network with other students and an opportunity to get some much needed practice in disseminating research findings. It was certainly an experience and I was left with mixed feelings about my choice of direction. One one hand I am enthused with the idea of undertaking a research topic and really getting stuck in but have feelings of inadequacy after mixing with all the students yesterday. Still it hasn’t put me off enough to stop me getting up this morning and booting up my laptop to check up on some interesting websites mentioned in a recent edition of Information World Review!

So first up is the Jog the Web site which offers users a chance to comment on websites that particularly interest them and provide a ‘track’ which other people can come along and check out. This seems to be a growing trend in online bookmarking and collaboration tolls and it looks interesting although seems to lack many of the features of the second site.I really enjoyed jogging this track.

Diigo is a more comprehensive social bookmarking site which offers so much more. Rather than me try and list whats so good about it though check out the video on YouTube……

Lastly I will mention evernote.com which is a nofty tool that allows you to save and search your online and offline ’stuff’ such as web pages, photos, documents and more. The thing that stood out for me with this one was its ability to recognise text in photos and handwritten notes and tag the items for later search and retrieval. This can be used online (no download required) or can be installed on your PC and synchronised when items are added both online and offline.

Anyway off out for some more networking or rather lunch with Sue!

Day two of my research and I am feeling inadequate! Having spent most of yesterday trawling through the publications of Jaime Teevan I am feeling a little overwhelmed and totally unsure where I can make any contribution to existing knowledge. To be honest I don’t feel up to the job right now and wonder if I might have bitten off more than I can chew.

I have been looking into the issue of re-finding information which does sort of fit with my previous research into children’s search techniques in a way. I am interested in how people search, store and remember where they found their information. I know that I do things very differently now compared with just 2 or 3 years ago and I find it interesting how peoples level of experience with the Internet can contribute to their skill at searching. Do technically minded people have more success in learning the tips or quirk’s of a particular search engine?

Anyway I must crack on as I have a pile of PDFs from yesterday to get through and a helpful tool to check out.

Well officially I am not a student again until I visit the university for enrolment on the 26th Sept but I did make a start on my research project yesterday by visiting my supervisor and discussing where I go next.

I had been feeling a bit out on a limb wondering if I would be pursuing my initial thought to expand upon my undergrad project. I was in two minds about whether I actually wanted to do this,  firstly I am not keen on kids at the best of times and it is tricky to get access to them in a school situation. Secondly I was aware of the reservations the interviewers had of me continuing with it and was sort of expecting not to get the go ahead anyway.

So the thought of some new and exciting avenue is welcome and after the discussion yesterday I am all fired up with renewed enthusiasm, if only I was all official and could get going properly. Anyway watch this space, I am sure I will be back with an update soon.

I have a purple phone, I nagged and nagged for a purple phone for Christmas even though there was nothing wrong with my then current mobile. So 9 months on why is it that I now fancy a new phone again? I feel fickle enough to be a ‘yoof’ that’s for sure!

It could of course be related to an embarrassing addiction to US teen dramas, we have just completed 3 seasons of Veronica Mars ( I can’t believe they will not be making another season just for me) and have dashed through the first 13 episodes of the 1st season of Gossip Girl in record time. What do they have to do with mobile phones? Well the young people in these shows have more in common than perfect hair and expensive taste, they all have funky mobiles with qwerty keyboards and spend most of their time IMing their friends.

So the phone in question is the LG KS360, catchy name right? anyway despite the name I really fancy a blue one (they don’t do a purple one), trawling the internet for further details like where can I get my grubby hands on one I notice O2 are stocking them from Aug/Sept, thats great I think! I can even upgrade with my current supplier and get straight on the phone to them. Guess what though? You guessed it, O2 deny all knowledge of the phone and suggest I call back next month, don’t they know the fickle mind of ‘yoof’ will be moving onto something else next month?

My lovely white roses, originally uploaded by SaraCat.

My husband came home on Tuesday with these just because he loves me! Sickeningly sweet that might be to some but it made my day/week/month.