Qualitative researchers must be a flexible Gumby

Yesterday was one of those days in school that pinpointed for me some of the readings about how intune qualitative researchers need to be with what they want to do, how it colors their observations and what is really happening with the group being studied. I was teaching the class some strategies for editing and revising sections on the state tests coming up in March. It was boring work, but necessary and I could see the glazed over eyes. In response, I changed the presentation style and saw an improvement, but only a slight one. At that moment, a teacher who is training me on the Moodle, the on-line learning system we are putting into place entered the room to hand me some information on what I had learned the day before during the two hour pd. I had really enjoyed that pd. We learned how to create personal avatars. When he came in, I asked him if he was busy or could we stop for a moment and introduce the students to what we had learned. He was able to do it, so the lesson changed. He began his introduction and the class, at first, only marginally listened. It was just another teacher standing in the front of the room, but shortly into the presentation, I noticed a change. The doodling subsided, the room became more quiet, you could see the attention increase. Soon, there was an observable difference in motivation and engagement, and in questions. As the students saw just how interactive and immediate their work could be on the blog sites their interest soared as did my passion. In fact, at one point when I said let's show them the avatars I was so excited I slipped off the desk I was sitting on. They laughed, but they could see the passion I had. Shortly thereafter, one boy, AZ who asks every day do we have homework (even though he knows we will) because he is not always homework-compliant said "I can't wait to do my homework." Then it changed for me. Then I realized that maybe my idea of what to study shifted. Then I thought about the fact that what I wanted to study may need to change or may need to change in its intensity. I wanted to (and still do) want to look at writing on line to see how it changes, how it is different both in form and in quality to standard, formal paper and pen writing. I still want to understand how writing in a different medium will change writing, but I also decided that another very important arena might be how student motivation and engagement is affected by the online world of delivering instruction. We live in such an immediate world, instant oatmeal, instant breakfast, instant messages. Kids like immediate feed back and the idea that they can get immediate feedback, see their work, assess their work, get peer feedback etc almost immediately is enticing. I became acutely aware how I might be changing in response to what I was seeing. My Teacher-I kicked in as I noticed a potential teachable-moment, a venue that would not only interest the students, but keep them engaged. I began to wonder how inclass work and participation and interest might be affected by the work they do online and at home. Would inclass discussion be changed by the discussions they have with each other over the internet. Would their work increase in quality as they have more resources available to them? In my Teacher-I, my quest is to make them life-long learners and passionate human beings. Certainly, increasing their motivation and stimulating their passions might indeed create more active engagement and more passionate learners and human beings.

I also realized that I have to be careful with my Passionate-I because I have to realize that my passion might affect someone else. My passion is mine, but it shouldn't be a coercive tool to engender someone else's passion. It might be an I that has to be checked and monitored.