What's missing on Google Docs

Or maybe just what I haven't found yet
1) differentiating between docs I write and docs from other sources
2) On research docs I would like a pen to be able to make scribbles. Different to Comments, not drawings. Real hand written scribbles over text (in red - I'm a teacher!).
3) like that can search for terms but would like to be able to create keywords and search only for those
4) Would like to be able to define a section of text and when browsing for docs  show only that text - like consulting the abstract.
5) Dont like that can't reference another doc in the current doc :-(
Will still use it I think.
Kids are SWIMMING!!!!?????

Brats

Okay - so cannot do any reading tonight, the children are making sushi and there are LOADS of them!
What I can do is fiddle with Google Docs to see how useful a tool it would be to keep my research articles on.
Getting fed up with handwritten notes, no cross-referencing capabilities, papers everywhere.....
So far so good - I am just going to have to get used to not being able to take a red pen and scribble notes....but as the kids say - Mom get a life!

Quality time

Just been with Thandi to the library to pick up
Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle
The Dalai Lama at MIT, Harrington and Zajonc
The Role of Play in Human Development, Pelligrini.
Wanted her to follow the process of finding the books, smelling them, searching through the dusty shelves with so many thoughts just waiting to be read, seeing the beautiful buildings.....
3 kids for a sleep over tonight - so with 6 in total won't be able to get much reading done :-(

A Turn

In order to look at Immersion - I wanted to know what game designers did to pull people into their designs and came across Don Carson,  a freelance designer & illustrator  who was a Senior Show Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, the theme park design arm of the Walt Disney Company. He helped to design Splash Mountain for Walt Disney World Florida, and Mickey's Toontown for Disneyland California and Don continues to work as a consultant for companies such as Disney, Jim Henson Co., Universal Studios, and Microsoft.
Just reading his approach to designing inspired me. I wanted to play, I wanted to visit those places. My imagination was fired http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3186/environmental_storytelling_.php
In this article he wrote in 2000 he says a well designed game :

• Lets me go somewhere I could never go.
• Lets me be someone I could never be.
• Lets me do things I could never do!

I wanted to be "Transported" to a place where I could experiment with different Identities and learn how to do new things! 

I wanted to PLAY! and then he blew me away with this - I've put it all in because each time I read it it fires up creativity, desire, longing in me :

" For the time being, the ability to create virtual worlds is relatively new to us. I have no doubt that in the years to come we will continue to blaze new trails deep into this entertainment medium. Although we break new technological ground with every year that passes, I still find that I am left wanting. I long for the day we break away from rambling labyrinths for their own sake, whether they are dungeon passages, back street alleys, or miles of sewer pipes. I look forward to visiting virtual places that tell me more about where I am and what I am supposed to do. I want to use my wits and knowledge to get myself out of tight spots, and never again have to twitch my way through timed puzzles that force me to repeat my actions over and over to simply reach another level of the game.

With the growing popularity of multiplayer games and the promise of higher band widths, I relish the day I can meet friends and explore these worlds together. Places where our success isn't measured only in frags, and our rewards aren't merely based on how many fire beetles we have killed. I look forward to the day when the act of exploration actually builds relationships between it's players. I want my character to be tested. I want to be given the choice of sacrificing myself for a higher cause, or sacrifice others for my own petty rewards. I want to be given choices that test my relationship with other players. Force us to work together for a common goal, pull us apart, then bring us together, and make us pool our mental and emotional resources to get through this adventure in one piece.

In closing, I want to say that I relish the years to come. I can't wait to see what virtual worlds you will have created for us to explore. Push that envelope and bravely challenge the "way it has always been done before." Use your environments to draw us in deep, and build on the strength of a good Story, making it the back bone of your project. You have the power. You are the storytellers. Now......"

Isn't that what MMORPG do? Isn't World of Warcraft just that place? 
I needed to look more into how MMORPGs incorporate PLAY into the GAME.
This led me to the 17th issue of Mind, Culture and Activity (2010) which dealt particulary with play and imagination as a Pedagogy for children and adults .

Twists and Turns

So off I went with a semi-question in mind: "Causes and Effects of Presence in Gaming"..... and I very quickly realised that such a generalised question was not the way to go.
So I decided to tackle maybe just one or two aspects of Presence.

In the paper by Caplan, S., et al. Problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being among MMO players. Computers in Human Behavior (2009)) It was found that Motivation for Immersion was the greatest predictor for Problematic Gaming  and the second being the players sense of community ( through using voice technology), quite a quandary here because those are probably also the 2 factors that motivate people to play in the first place! Yee N. (2006) Motivations for Play in Online Games. CyberPsychology & Behavior Vol. 9, 6 ) 

Okay, so this was a direction I could take - Presence as Immersion and Presence as Social Richness (using language as a vector) (Lombard M. and Ditton T., ( 1997) At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence. JCMC 3 (2)).

Then I had to go to school to fetch Mikael who has possibly fractured his arm and needs an X-Ray!  How do I find a doctor? How does my OSHC Medical Insurance work? 

Refining

Now that I was 2/3rds through my readings to clear up my understanding of the term Presence I decided to go through the folders and pick out the articles that I felt were significant.

I chose articles that looked at Gaming (Video games, MMORPG’s)  from a perspective of at least one factor of Presence (Immersion, Social Interactions, Well-Being, Motivation etc) If one of these factors were looked at with regards Social Networking sites I included those as well as I feel that the Social Factor is of extreme relevance to Internet use and Presence and can be found in successful games.

A lot of articles were concerned with problematic usage of, or addiction as these were the articles I first was the most interested in.  I think that this is not a drawback, problematic Usage could highlight factors that should be taken into consideration when designing and using these technologies in an Educational Setting.

One author in particular caught my attention, Johannes Frommes. He has brought up 2 important issues that I will need to look at.

1)   Most of the research has been done on Adults and Adolescents. He suggests that children are different and we cannot presume that findings we have are generalisable across this age divide.

2)   He also suggests that Children are from a different media generation and that research questions that have so far been studied have been from the perspective of an old worldview related to Media.

I have about 38 articles that I think could comprise a relatively good base.

Regretfully I do not have any from the MIT Press Presence: Teleoperators and Visual Presence as the library does not give access to this journal. I could get them through another contact but would have liked to search through this database with some keywords relating to my specific interest.

I think my research angle is starting to become a little bit clearer to me:

It deals with Causes and Effects of Presence in Gaming, with particular attention to children.

I am now going to do another search on articles that may be more honed in to this angle.

Better late than never.

What would make my life easier

1. Would not need to log in everytime I needed a Journal article. I would have a "global" authorisation and any article I was interested in would be called up using the Universities relevant link automatically.
2. I would have a software in which I could store all the articles that I was interested in. Within these I could consult either the abstract or full article, do searches by keyword and attach my own keywords to articles

i'm beginning to like this blog idea

its like an extended twitter - increases my sense of PRESENCE. The Italians have the Piazza, the communal square that they can go down to at any time of day - we have Facebook, Blogs and Twitter.

My thought was -

I spend the large proportion of my day on my computer - but it is for my WORK, my RESEARCH - thats okay. The children come home and I regulate their use of WOW, Social networking  etc. because all of that is "not okay".

What if they are addicted? Horrors of Horrors.

Now if I am not on the computer checking for the signs of MMORPG addiction on wikipedia I am probably dealing with household tasks, using other mediums to interact with friend or driving the kids to their organised activities.

Sure we can set aside time for "quality" time - a game here, an activity there, a meal all together (our dinner time rule - see what a "good" parent I am?)

But what are the fundamentals here?

• I can be constantly on my computer but the children cant be
• Social achievement is partly related to being able to delegate household tasks to staff.
• Children should be free to play, play at what? Certainly not washing and ironing - that is child slavery and all children have access to the relevant Helpline, unless they are toddlers and we buy them the plastic kitchen.
• When I was a teenager my parents complained about my phonebill, today we complain about the time spent on Facebook (its free we cant complain about the bill)
• But there is cyber bullying???!!! Yes and before there was only physical bullying.
• WOW has instituted RP - I think it means Role Play where all players are expected to use exceptionally polite and evolved language with each other. Bt I don't really know because I am in my world and not theirs.

I am meant to be studying Presence with regards to Gaming and/or Problematic Use and/or .......

If I research this what benefit will my output bring?

I am not an empirical study as there is not sufficient sample size and too much bias but realistically my experiences and needs direct my inquiry....

Pinch of salt

All fair and well and am going to definitely keep this in mind as a check on research in Presence - BUT
lets not lose sight of the another "reality" - the fact that Siddartha left his entire family, went off to the desert on his own for 40 years to THINK about all of this!
Would love to follow the Oprah interview of Mrs Gautama and her take on it.....

Buddhism says our suffering comes from our Attachments

Due to a disaster with the Blog Autosaving when I did not want it to –I am now going to keep my research journal in Word.

It has taken me an hour to get over my feelings of rage, pain, disillusionment and panic and to simply focus on getting on with the job – releasing my attachment to what was written, releasing the attachment to having it written so that I can get the relevant grade from the markers, releasing it all.

 The second paper I am going to read is very relevant to the experience I have just had:

Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being. (2005) Eckman P., Davidson R.J, Ricard M and Wallace B.A.

Buddhism states that emotion and cognition cannot be seen as 2 separate entities. The paper cites neurological research that confirms that these are 2 processes that are also intertwined in the brains circuitry.

Buddhism does believe that emotions strongly influence people in their pursuit of happiness but they differentiate between 2 types of happiness: Sukha – achieved through mental balance and insight into the nature of reality (characterised by a deep sense of well being, propensity towards compassion and interconnectedness with other people) rather than fleeting emotion and mood arousal through sensory and conceptual stimuli.

The study of Presence as discussed in the At the Heart of it paper appears to have all been conducted through sensory and conceptual stimuli – thus in Buddhist terms the resultant emotional and mood arousal would be a different one that would be felt when reality itself is understood. As we then move towards Virtual Reality does this inherently mean we will be moving further away from our potential for Sukha or will that Virtual Reality actually become part of that which makes up our Reality and sukha will come from understanding Virtual Realities true nature?

In contrast to Sukha is Dukkha – a basic vulnerability to suffering and pain due to misapprehending the nature of reality. From a Dukkha viewpoint – I was vulnerable to suffering when I lost 5 hours of work because I was unable to comprehend that the words were gone but it was just the words. The reality behind the words had not disappeared; I had not disappeared with the words.

Sukha understands that there is a difference between the way things appears to the senses, the conceptual superimpositions one projects onto them and they way things really are. This is from a philosophy that dates back more than 2000 years and the western research is now corroborating.

Sukha is experienced by finding one’s individual happiness within a context of deep kinship with all beings, as all share the same yearning to be free of suffering. This corresponds to the African notion of Ubuntu and is found in western society not through a fundamental cultural premise but through our intellectual striving for understanding e.g. "People want connection [with other people] more than any other experience" (suggested by Heeter 1992 quoted in At the Heart of it).

With relation to the Buddhist comparison of Sukha and fleeting emotional states the paper highlights the fact that in some cited research people report only the most recent /intense emotional experience when giving subjective responses as to their emotional experiences.  The responses refer rather to the “fleeting” emotion and mood arousal discussed earlier.

Buddhism recognises that affective states, aroused by pleasurable stimuli, are “contingent on specific times, places, and circumstances” and that these cannot be simply categorised as positive affective states as they may convert into neutral or unpleasant feelings when the person disengages from the stimuli.

With regards gaming and social networking – I have some research on how the progression of these feeling from positive to negative has been observed (To do list)

Buddhism rejects the Aristotelian notion that “all emotions are healthy as long as they are not excessive or inappropriate to the time and place”.

In addition the paper highlights 3 emotions that it considers toxic for the mind:

1.    Craving

2.    Hatred

3.    Grasping onto one’s own and other’s reified personal identities as real and concrete.

1. Craving

Gives rise to anxiety, misery, fear and anger. It is an unrealistic mental state that displaces the source one’s well being from ones own mind to objects. Craving is concerned with acquiring and maintaining some desirable object (onto which one has projected and exaggerated these desirable qualities) for the self, which may be threatened by the other.

Buddhism sees this afflictive state as a “toxin of the mind” irrespective of the strength of it or the circumstance under which it arises.

Interestingly many of the MMORPG games include this notion of acquiring objects that have been deemed desirable by the players and protecting them from others. 

Despite the toxicity of this millions of people are drawn to it.

In the previous paper Lombard and Ditton suggested that further research should look into why people are drawn to games that have a certain danger, maybe this should be included to see if people are drawn to games that have inherent elements of craving in them and why this is so.  (Watch out for)

Buddhists use this term more generally than western psychologists who tend to include only states produced by substance or strongly appetitive opportunities (e.g. gambling).  They include the desire to acquire objects and situations for oneself.

Neuroscience has shown that the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine is common to the states of craving in substance and activities such as gambling. This release is highly reinforcing but is not associated with pleasure in the long term

2. Hatred

Of another or object. Although the emotion may be triggered by the external entity, the source of this is in the mind.

3. Grasping onto one’s own and other’s reified personal identities as real and concrete

This is the source of craving and hatred.  Instead of accepting the self as in a state of dynamic flux, there is an erroneous belief that the self is permanent, singular and autonomous. This gives rise to the notion of separation between self and others and craving naturally arises for the “I” and against the other.

Comparison of focus between Western Psychology and Buddhism

Western psychology does not distinguish between beneficial and harmful emotions

To improve one’s emotional life one should attempt to regulate experience and action once an emotion is felt.

.

Buddhists believe that the dispositional trait of sukha can be cultivated through specific practises.

Western psychology do not involve cultivating of long term effort that is involved in complex skill learning that happiness could be considers as an example of.

Suggested Research Directions

·               More nuanced distinctions when thinking about emotional experience.

To do List

1.    Look for the papers dealing with the progression of feelings from positive to negative once the person disengages from the stimuli and reflect on how this relates to Buddhist view on Afflictive Mental States

2.     

What to watch for

The questions this paper evokes are then –

·           When studying Presence through simulated stimulation of the senses and relating various characteristics of well being experienced through this mediation what are we actually evoking and what are we actually measuring?

·           In the previous paper Lombard and Ditton suggested that further research should look into why people are drawn to games that have a certain danger, maybe this should be included to see if people are drawn to games that have inherent elements of craving in them and why this is so.  (Watch out for)

·           When a researcher looks for signs of Presence is there a differentiation in the research design between Presence, which will be fleeting, and Presence, which connects, to the core essence of the person?

·           Do these questions matter to the research on Presence?

At the Heart of it all. The Concept of Presence

AN ENTIRE 5 HOURS OF WORK LOST HERE !!!!! Spose it was unreasonable to have spent that long on this section in the first place. Time on Task Nicola, Time on task!

But besides that - WARNING -either find a way to turn autosave off or work in another application and just post into blog. Lost changes are gone, finito!

The paper highlights 6 Conceptualisations (types) of Presence :

1. Presence as social richness
From studies of communication in organisations - Presence is the extent to which a medium is perceived as "sociable", "warm", "sensitive", "intimate" and is related to concepts such as intimacy and immediacy. where language is a vector of immediacy.

2. Presence as Realism
Human Factors Engineers - Presence is the degree to which a medium can produce seemingly accurate representations.
The paper highlights the fact that a distinction should be made between "Social realism" (true to life) and "Perceptual Realism" (what could be expected)

3. Presence as Transportation
Presence is the degree to which the person feels they have been transported to another place,  the objects/people are brought into the user's environment or the user shares the same space with objects/people that are at a remote physical site.

4. Presence as Immersion
Comprises both a psychological and perceptual component. Perceptual presence is determined by how many senses are provided with input from the medium and how many are shut out from receiving input from the actual phsysical environment. The Psychological component of Presence as immersion is measured by how absorbed, engrossed and involved the user felt themselves to be. Interestingly in a study cited, the virtual reality systems that were "fun, intense,competitive,addictive and exciting" scored the highest on Immersion. This begs a question which I cannot formulate now.

5. Presence as social actor within medium
Users illogically overlook the mediated nature of an entity and treat them as social entities by responding to social cues. The paper suggest that users interact with avatars as if they were real people. In Farmville, users will stop other activities to go and "water" their crops.

6. Presence as medium as social actor
When the user socially responds to the medium itself and not to entities within the medium. This will occur if the medium uses natural language, has a realtime interaction and fills traditional social roles. Basic social cues exhibite by the medium lead users to treat the medium as a social entity, a communicative partner and not just a physical object.


Presence can only occur if

• a person is using the medium
• is not a pathological confusion between the nonmediated and real world
• the person is willing to suspend disbelief

and possibly may or may not occur depending on

• knowledge of and prior experience the medium
• personality type
• the person's preferred representational system
• age, gender
• levels of sensation seeking, need to overcome loneliness, mood before and after

What would the equivalent  a) nonmediated conceptualisations of Presence be and what would possible reactions be if b) the person was not feeling Present in mediated situations?

1. Social richness
Instead of feeling that I am intimate with my Avatar I feel that I am intimate with my friend because I know that the Avatar is just a bunch of pixels.
2 Realism
I am on the beach and feel the sand, see and hear the waves, smell the algae
3. Transportation
I go on holiday to India, go to a meeting at work, my friend comes to visit me in my house
4.Immersion
I fly a plane
5. Social Actor within Medium
My dog barks for water I respond by filling its bowl
6. As medium as Social Actor
This does not occur in real life settings but my reaction would possibly be different as in When a computer spoke words I would treat them as computerised instructions.

- Need to keep this in mind and will come back to this excercise maybe later.

Characteristics of the Medium|User|Context

Causes of presence as Invisible Medium

   Form Variables

             Number and consistency of sensory outputs

              Visual display characteristics

             Aural presentation characteristics

             Stimuli for other senses

             Interactivity

                 1. Number of inputs the medium accepts and responds to

                 2. Personalization capabilities of the medium

                 3. Control of the attributes by the user

                 4. type of user input and type of medium response

                 5. Reaction speed of medium

             Obtrusiveness of Medium

              Live vs recorded/constructed experience

              Number of people

     Content variables

              Social Realism

              Use of Media conventions

               nature of task or activity

       Media user variables

              Willingness to suspend disbelief

              Knowledge of and prior experience with the medium

              Other user variables

       Effects of Presence

             Physiological

             Psychological

Causes of presence as Transformed Medium

   Form Variables

             Interactivity

              Use of voice

              Medium size and shape

   Content Variables

            Social Realism

             use of Media conventions

             Nature of task or activity

    Media User variables

            Knowledge of and prior experience with the medium

            Other user variables  

        Effects of Presence

             Physiological

             Psychological   

It suggests future research should look for answers to the following question:

• What does presence offer us?
• How to create it
• How to use it effectively
• How it mediates a variety of responses
• What are the factors that contribute to a sense of presence - what encourages it
• What are the consequences of a sense of presence, what are the effects once it is evoked
• Is Presence a good thing?
• Can presence contribute to pathology?
• Why do we so strongly desire a sense of presence?
• What are the characteristics of a medium's form and content
• Depending on characteristics of Medium | User | Context is their one identifiable type of perceptual illusion or experience which lead to a complex variety of influences? 
• Are "Presence as invisible Medium" and "Presence as transformed Medium" two distinct experiences comprising distinct concepts or are they dimensions in a multidimensional concept of presence - Watch out for list.....
• Call for standardised measure of Presence and the manipulations of variables thought to encourage Presence.

Importantly to gaming:

• Why do we get a sense of presence from relatively primitive cues.
• Do we desire a sense of presence in certain games that have danger and socially unacceptable events in oder to have experiences we otherwise would not have, and to experience them without real danger and social unacceptability?

"People want connection [with other people] more than any other experience" (suggested by Heeter 1992 quoted in this paper). Looking at this from the point of view of Ubuntu, is presence heightened from the connection with others because of that connection or because that connection heightens the connection with oneself, one's own existence and so could this be rephrased as People want a connection with themselves more than any other experience and that connection with themselves is felt through their experience of Presence mediated through others or objects with social feedback characteristics"?

This could be backed up the aspects of interactivity that the paper highlights as important for the user to perceive a medium as a social entity, namely the number of previous user inputs that were acknowledged and the time lag of these responses back to the user. The user remains the pivotal point, the social entity is a means to "feed" the existence of the user and so the social entities existence is determined by how much it creates a perception of sociality in the user and not its own inherent sociability. I think the Buddhism paper will give me more insight into this angle. - To-Do List and Watch out for List....

I was curious about the comments on the Regain and Shebilske (1992) paper whereby the participants in simulation experiment fared only slightly better than those who trained in the actual environment (and remember that I have another similar paper on comparison with map readings). I would like to look into what this differential was. To-Do List and Watch out for List.... 

To-Do List

This paper requires the following actions:

1. Find possible later research that has generalized the term Presence - (Identifying the (Tele)Presence Literature Lombard M, Matthew T.J (2007) 
2. Consult the Regain and Shebilske (1992) paper and find, in the heap, the one on map reading to see if there is corrobration on "The Missing Link" and if it has any relevance.
3. Create a folder with the extended reading papers for consultation
4. Have a shower, get something to eat and some exercise to clear the head irrespective of the perception that time is too short to allow for this
5. Read the 2nd chosen corner paper - The Buddhism one, to see what a different perspective has to offer.

Watch Out for List

1. So does this mean that there is also another Presence whereby there is no Medium? And if so are its characteristics different?
2. "People want connection [with other people] more than any other experience" - Presence in Socialising as defined by UBUNTU or is there something in the fact that we are still separate entities and responses from social interactions help us construct Presence in Ourselves.
3. What is the differential between full success in Real Situations and near full success in Simulated Situations - this could give me a clue to facets of Presence that could not be in Simulated Situations or how to enhance Virtual Reality to include this
4. 
   
   
   
   
5. Are "Presence as invisible Medium" and "Presence as transformed Medium" two distinct experiences comprising distinct concepts or are they dimenstions in a multidimensional concept of presence. Do other studies on Presence evoke other dimenstions that cannot fit into one of these 2 experiences?

Tomorrow is only a day away

I am going to focus on 3 core articles to find my direction:

1. At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence

Matthew Lombard Theresa Ditton

Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications, & Mass Media Temple University

Written in 1997! It examines the key concepts of presence and looks at these from 6 conceptualizations:

1. as Richness
2. as Realism
3. as Transportation
4. as Immersion
5. as Social Actor within Medium
6. as Medium

It also looks at factors that encourage or discourage a sense of presence in media and the physiological and psychological effects of presence 

I am hoping this is going to map somethings out for me.

2. I am very excited by the following article:

Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being

Paul Ekman, Richard J. Davidson, Matthieu Ricard and B. Alan Wallace Current Directions in Psychological Science 2005 14: 59

and it's bibliography truly lead me down all sorts of paths.

I have entered into this Masters knowing so little, Buddhism calls this "Beginner's Mind". Because of it I am floundering as I grapple with so many new concepts and technologies but because of it I hope I have something to contribute. Anne Schaef, in a little gem of a book,  When Society becomes an addict,  (the title is misleading), posits a fundamental change in our society. 

From a system that believes 

• it has the only true handle on reality
• that this reality is totally logical, rational and objective
• no other reality exists
• if something emerges from another "way" this System usurps it and fits it into its paradigm, owning it and changing it through this ownership

To a system 

• that is open, that lives and can let live.
• that accepts many facets to a perceived reality
• that can function within supposed chaos and finds it way

Buddhism sees emotions quite differently from "us". I want to delve into their notion of Presence to see it from this different angle. Only recently, thanks to MIT, has the buddhist perspective been given academic attention. I think there is a lot to discover.

3. As a continuation from the previous reading I need to get my head around a very interesting dissertation by Caroline Nevejan entitled PRESENCE AND THE DESIGN OF TRUST. She has a fascinating background, her father, the domain she has been working in, her other writings etc. Unlike Michael Jacobson, I have absolutely no memory. He remembers every writer, their entire academic careers, every project he worked with them on - a memory like an elephant! I am just the elephant with the memory of an ostrich. Take me for my word, all she has done is interesting.

I think Nevejan approaches this topic from an Open System view - Schaef's Open System view, not Bertalanffy's,. I think she is the link to the Buddhist perspective. 

I am not sure if this is going to lead me down a new path or give me a different perspective of the path that I am on. I am not even sure if time permits such a luxury, nor if others consider it even relevant. But my heart is drawn to it.

Just to wrap up with a insy, winsy little point.

I don't even know if this path fits in with what the assignment asks for - a literary review. I will surely not have the time needed to delve into it like I would like to.

I will deal with that tomorrow.

 

A VERY Steep Learning Curve

6 weeks into the program. On one hand it feels like 6 minutes and on the other more like 600 HUNDRED years! This particular module has been hanging like a noose around my neck and it just got tightened.

You are only as good as your search engine - Opening up Google and sending out a question is like being thrown into a labyrinth - blindfolded.  I managed to access some great works but sifting through the chaf was extremely time consuming. There is just soooo much information out there.

Then I discovered Google Scholar.... duh!!!! This on its own saved me hours of sifting.

And I learn't you are only as good as your organisation. As one gets hooked into one article, the bibliography sends you spinning off down another tunnel. The .pdfs were piling up saved under 3456.pdf, hrzuipresenceone.pdf,  lee2.pdf, .... in folders all over the place. Some I even forgot to save and spent hours trying to retrieve.

I came up against dead-ends with:

• too many cascading windows in my browser,
• incomprehensible nomenclatures for files and folders,
• notes jotted all over the house with library call numbers (always put author and title - a number 2 days later means nothing!)
• frustrating journals needing payments for articles (another duh!! moment when I realised had access through the university library)
• and of course not knowing in which direction I was going.

Tonight is a new night. I am starting this blog in earnest to be my compass. Sorting out the folders and files. Deciding on the principal articles that are going to by my guiding star. I can feel the breath of the minotaur and need to find my way.