Well my first blog, not sure how I feel about it as I prefer to remain private or at least anonymous. I do recognize it is a form of dialogue but not a form or method I would readily choose. More to learn now with how to maneuver through the blog site, for example I tried to insert an image and the blog just posted itself to the page for all to read, no image, in fact the writing wasn’t complete at all either. Then to figure out how to fix that so that it becomes the page that I want. Not sure I have this sorted but at least it is a start. With my focus on the other assignments I put this to the back burner but I need to get this going now with a focus on the course, hence the first one is a long post. Now to came up with something to write about, but first I will put in a disclaimer that what I write here are my thoughts and opinions and if anyone disagrees with what I say, hey that creates dialogue. I expect that everyone will have a different view, I respect those views and they may change or form my view or my thoughts may change the view of others. 

I have to say I am feeling overwhelmed with everything, I am also finding it very hard right now to be focused. I am on vacation and trying to find time to work on the course as well as visit family and friends that I haven’t seen in two plus years. To find a balance is difficult, as everyone's schedule is different so to try to fit things in can be difficult. On top of that  I’m dealing with personal items that have been on hold for the last two years and trying to sort that out while I’m here. Then I fly to Ottawa and then on to Southern Ontario where my primary focus will be spending time with my 88 year old mother and doing things with her as I may not see her until next summer again. Once I’m back in the Middle East then I will have more time to focus on the courses. 

  

The focus of this blog covers the topic of research and is to be related to the introduction to research course. Again many different styles of research and our first assignment was to see which style or styles of inquiry fits our scholarly journey. For me I can honestly say “I do not know.” I have an idea of which ones I subscribe to: quantitative inquiry, historical inquiry and ethnographic inquiry. Are these the only ones that I may use, there are others that may be more suitable to the study so I do need to be open and knowledgable to the other forms as well. There are many different ideas and thought processes as to how to do research, but we need to look at what it is we want to research and then ask some pertinent questions. These questions should reflect the nature of the study, and look to answer the who, what, where, when, why and how about the subject. Then comes the task of analyzing the data that is collected and how to interpret the results for meaning to study. 

So far it has been interesting learning about the various research methods, I need to reread some so as to get a better handle on the processes involved, but overall I’m finding it interesting, sometimes overwhelming with all that has to be done, assignments and reading and on top of that dealing with real life as well. Well back to reading before heading to catch up with more people I haven't seen since I left to work in Qatar. Well off to another appointment, back soon.