I'm now Dr. Barb!   Wow.... this feels good.  I still have to go through the UMI process of getting the dissertation turned into a digital academic document, but I'm Dr. B!... Long years of work  (10 years time wise, but only 6 of those were really hard work).  Two years I took off for personal reasons, and two were spent spinning wheels without an advisor, but the university and I both finally got our acts together to get it done.

Advice for others?   Keep plowing away, keep reading other dissertations, keep believing in yourself, and keep up in your field!  Even when I was spinning wheels and getting my feet back on the ground after having the wind knocked out of me, I kept watching my Google alerts on topics I was interested in.  This kept me current so that when things did align  (getting the right advisor,topic, and time) it all fell into place, and moved along at a constant pace.

What's next?  Still thinking about this one.  My research methodology was one that is just starting to be accepted in my field, and my work validates its potential in that field, so hopefully I'll be able to do more research.  Doing  a phenomenology in virtual schools (my original topic that an advisor had a bias against so never was successful - and I probably wasn't ready then either), online learning,  the new Common Core, teacher evaluations, and many more topics is feasible, doable, and would probably make changes happen more easily.  This methodology digs deep into the essence of the phenomenon, thus finding the underlying challenges keeping change from happening.  Hopefully digging deep into the experiences of those going through change will make it easier to find solutions to the challenges that come with change.  But this opens up many avenues for future research.  Hopefully I'll find a way to do that research.

Moving onward....

Dr. B.

It's in!   Turned in the final report to my advisor.  Now all I have to do is wait for the critiques from her and my committee,  fly to Florida to defend it, and go through the publishing process.  Whew! Even those steps sound daunting.  But at least the extended writing has come to an end. 

Or has it?  I keep thinking of things that I could put in there,  and figuring out how to turn it into a presentation for the defense.   But enough is enough, I think!  We'll see what my committee says.

The other thing is now I keep thinking about other things that I'd like to research.  For example, the methodology I used would be perfect for looking at the life of virtual teachers in online schools... and students there as well. But to convince others of the doing it .... that's another story.

And of course, now that I researched all those tools, I want to find ways to use them in the classroom and in presentations.   So I'm off to play with Prezi, Cartoon maker, Voki and Animoto.  I'm sure I can wow my committee and others during my defense!.

Happy playing..

I'm still plowing along.. and making good progress!  The formal proposal was accepted in March this year, and I've gathered my data, and am working on my results now. So the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned on!!  Yahoo!... can't wait.. more later. :-)