Dissertation Journey

Week 1 (January 8th)

So it is unofficially official, I have reached the ABD (All But Dissertation) stage of my Ph.D. program. I have stalled and gotten sidetracked multiple times over the last three years, but I have regained my focus. This series of posts will highlight everything I am doing in this journey along with other fun “side quests” that may arise in this journey. I think I have an idea of what is to come but I know it will be an uphill climb, I’ve got this.

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Syracuse University School of Education’s Teaching and Leadership program. Since the 2018 spring semester, I have had my eyes opened to international education and policies, critical race theory, and how crucial our work as educators is. As I went on this formal educational journey, I joined an amazing community of researchers, creatives, and innovators looking at how Extended Reality can change and shape the classroom of the future through a research project with EDUCAUSE and HP.

Learning in Three Dimensions: Report on the EDUCAUSE/HP Campus of the Future Project

Extended Reality in Higher Education

My research has driven me to ask the question; How Do We Make Sense of Learning in XR, specifically Virtual Reality? I have found that through my initial research proposal, there are a lot more questions that are coming from this project, which makes this research all the more exciting. I will dive deeper into the research and what the next steps are as we get going, but I just wanted to start somewhere. It has been a crazy and exciting journey over the last couple of years and it seems to only be getting better. As the journey continues, I will fill in some of the background information as I progress. This will be a mix of media as we go because I am a nerd and that’s what I do. So if you are reading this, I hope you enjoy it, and let us begin…

~Remember to breathe.