Books, Books, Books! (2/60)

Alright, we've made it through the second month of this five-year mission! 

​In this month's post, I'll talk about my thoughts of a few of the things that I read this month, give a full (ish) list of my reading, share my continuing uncertainty about my research topic, and more.

This Month's Reading

As I continue to hone in on my research topic (more on that later), I've been reading and rereading books, articles, blog posts, reports....it's been a lot of reading. This probably goes without saying, but if you ever want to tackle a Ph.D., figure out a system of reading and notetaking that works for you. You'll be putting those skills to use pretty much constantly straight from the beginning.

I've been spending a lot of time reading three books in particular which come from the ubiquitous series, Internationalization in Higher Education, edited by Elspeth Jones and published by Routledge. I mentioned the series in my previous post, but I'm going to again for two reasons:

1. It's the best series for anyone curious about the wide variety of topics under the Internationalization umbrella
2. They will undoubtedly be my constant companions throughout the next five years as more are published which tie in to my research interests (such as the newly-published Learner Relationships in Global Higher Education)

The three that I've been exploring this month are:

This books is particularly interesting to me for a number of reasons. First of all, I'm a sucker for a good case study. This book covers an online intercultural competency course for students on international exchange programs and then presents the perspectives of a handful or participants. Pretty neat, eh? To top it off, the last chapter is titled "Lessons learned: Optimising study abroad through online intercultural education". I'll admit to you all that I skipped ahead to the end - I couldn't resist that title. If you're interested in how hybrid programs can enhance global learning, this book is for you. It really is a great read, and I love how the author ends the book. The last sentence of a book about marrying mobility and eLearning? "Exciting days ahead!"

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This is a more traditional collection of associated chapters from multiple authors, and wow is it a banger! There are a number of chapter which jumped out at me during my first readthrough; chapters like "The digital information ecology of international students: Understanding the complexity of communication" and "Cultural learning preferences, blended learning, and the internationalization of curriculum". There are so many great things to pull out of these chapters, and I'm looking forward to my second readthrough when I start marking things up. If you were intrigued by the book above, I'd suggest reading the last chapter of this one, titled "Creating an online orientation course: The journey to internationalizing the campus. Similar topics from different angles, but they pair nicely, like chocolate and peppermint. Or                                                                   chocolate and more chocolate.

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I'll admit that this is the book that I've spent the least amount of time with - not for lack of interest, but because I got caught up with a few articles and haven't circled back. Dialogue is a huge player in COIL, which I'm working on in my day job, and I'm eager to get a first pass through this book to see how I can work its lessons into my professional practice.

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There have been a handful of articles that I've gone through as well, mostly as I try to sniff out the details of my research topic. Nothing mind-shattering to share from them, but there have been some interesting new articles published about student perceptions and preparedness relating to online global education programs that you should check out if you're in that sphere.

Research Ping Pong

​Have you ever been out to eat with someone and after you look over the menu, you think "Yep, I'm definitely getting the fish and chips. I knew that's what I wanted when I came in and that's what I'm getting", but then you see that they have a Reuben with corned beef that they make themselves? 

It's like that.

You might know that I've been particularly interested in DEI topics within education abroad since I entered the field, and even before that as an undergrad. It's something that I care deeply about, but also an area where I am always doubting that I'm the right person to be doing research. Should a white, cisgender, Christian man from the Midwest really be talking about diversity issues? I have two ​camouflage hoodies, for Pete's sake. The optics alone are enough to get the Twittersphere abuzz.

So, I've been thinking about not doing that. The other direction to go in, and there area in which I'm doing the majority of my reading, is virtual exchange and COIL. Most of my work now is focused around faculty-led and virtual programs, and as it's a relatively new area within global education research, I think that there's a niche to be found there, but I can't shake my belief that I should be researching and writing about DEI topics.

Maybe there's a middle ground? Virtual programs are often touted as being more accessible and equitable, but are they really? What issues are generated by the virtual space that are unique? What power dynamics do we as practitioners need to keep in mind as we develop and implement COIL programs? Still thinking through these ideas, but I think that there's something there...

On the home front...

My wife and I are packing up our things to move after just over a year living here - our second move in our first two years of marriage, and my....21st move I think? I've lost count at this point. Anyway, it's boxes and packing tape and pickup loads of stuff over to the new house. It's about half as big as where we live now, BUT it's right on a lake and within 5 miles of my in-laws' family farm, so it's hard to complain. This has been a great "pandemic house", but there's not a ton to do in this area, so I've spent a lot of time on my butt getting fat. The lake house will be a fantastic and important change of lifestyle. Now if I could only find that time traveling mailbox...

Well, that's about it for this month's blog post. I'll share more as things develop. As always, if you have questions or suggestions or just an article to share, you know where to find me. 

I suppose I'll end this on a cute note. We've had our pandemic puppy for 6 months! He's just under 10 months old and 67 pounds. He's also the cutest dog you ever did see. Here's Charlie.