IT Blog

Alright, so by week 9 I plan on having the rough draft finished.  The next two weeks will be looking for resources and reading through them, and taking what I need from each resource and putting it in a word document.  The next two weeks will be reading further and evaluating these resources.  Two more weeks will be outlining and writing the rough draft, and that gives me a grace week to make sure I have everything put together.  Currently I'm in the research part of the journey.  I think I'm where I need to be.  Currently the only issues I have is the lack of information on the subject.  Since COVID19 is relatively new, little to no information is available on how it affects everything or what is going to happen to the education system and our current infrastructure.  I made very little progress this week...Monday and Tuesday I procrastinated. Wednesday I got some sources down on a word document on my external hard drive...today hit hard though....

I haven't discovered any new avenues or angles of research during the course if this paper...yet.  Currently, I categorize information based on its type.  If it's a news article, it goes to the news section.  If it's a blog post, it goes to the blog section.  If it's an interview, it goes to that section, etc etc.  I don't have enough resources and information to separate them into categories. Three things I know about my topic. 1.) Serious students are struggling to find a quiet place to study. 2.) Rural areas are struggling with online access and online schooling, especially when it comes to resources for school.  3.) Colleges are being stingy with their money and not lowering tuition prices, even though their students are forced to study from home. Knowledge Gaps: I'm not medically versed, but my dad's a doctor so that might help. I need more knowledge on how schools are handling the crisis.

The topic I'm going to be doing is How COVID 19 affects university and college students and how it exposes the fact that we have a weak infrastructure for distance learning.  Prior to this class, I've done a few research papers, just as equally challenging as this one. I typically dislike research.  Reason for this would be due to the fact that I see research papers as a daunting activity.  I've never enjoyed looking up facts that anyone can look up.  If I were to do a research paper I would rather do it on something that no one knows about, and actually conduct experiments on it.  I tend to begin my research with a question and then I go to google.  This week I learned that I despise online only school.  I prefer sitting in class doing my work while the teacher discusses the day's lesson, and then having most of the day to myself to workout or climb.  Last quarter, I was able to do all of my course work in class, and rarely took something home....

So far, I don't think my research question has needed any refinement.  The search methods seems to be working okay.  Google and google scholar are both my best friends at the moment.  I think I'm going to stick to my usual plan of googling, looking at the Wikipedia sources, and watching the news and looking at university responses for COVID-19.  Right now I'm just searching for information and putting it into paper as of now.

Quite frankly, my research topic came to my head while I was on spring break in Arizona.  I was enjoying the evening with the boys and I looked at my email, and I said, "Awe damn, I have a research paper this quarter."  And we got to talking about Covid-19 and online schooling.  Then, someone popped the question to me.  "How will COVID-19 affect colleges and online learning?"  I thought, "Time to expose colleges!  That's pretty much it.   The most challenging aspect of selecting a topic was figuring out the topic.  I couldn't pick a topic if I didn't have one.  I essentially picked the first one that came to mind.  As I implement the research plan, I realized I was missing the actual research.  I'm still behind on where I should be. I don't even have three resources I've neglected.  Currently, I'm looking at news articles about how schools are being affected by Covid 19 and what steps they are taking to fix all this....

At this point, my topic will be "How COVID-19 and distance learning exposed big colleges and how learning can be just as effective from home, provided with the right tools.  At the moment, I'm still in the research and development stage of this paper and that's okay.  All I need is two to three weeks to actually write a cohesive paper, and another two weeks to edit and make it look nice.  I think I'm where I should be development wise.  This week I plan to do some more research and s tart writing.  Next week I want to have a page done at the very least. 

The topic that I have chosen to pursue is how COVID-19 and Distance learning exposed big universities and how working from home, in most cases, is just as productive as commuting to work.  In my research journey, currently I am where I think I should be, currently researching all possible avenues for this project and finalizing the topic I want to discuss, weeding out doubt.  Some issues that I hit is time management.  Usually, I have a set schedule for working out, eating, studying, etc etc.  Due to COVID, the gyms have closed and I'm kind of at a standstill mentally because I have nowhere to let my energy go.  I barely get enough sleep due to my sister playing video games late at night, (usually till 1230 am or 1 am) and my room is right next to the TV, so that doesn't help at all.  Don't know how I'm going to overcome this.  This week I hope to get some resources and start writing the rough draft of the paper.  Possibly just dump information in...

Hello!  I am Jean-Michael and I am a 3rd year student at Olympic College.  The purpose of this blog is to provide a place for my professor to see my progress on my research.  I hope this quarter goes well...COVID-19 is making everything difficult. 

Jean-Michael Dapena 4/21/2020 For my topic, I have decided to answer the following question; How COVID-19 and Distance Learning exposes Universities.  It appeals to me because during this trying time of a pandemic, everyone is forced to work from home and attend college from home.  However, colleges are still charging an arm and a leg for tuition, and many universities, such as Western Washington University, are not refunding or reducing their prices for students who are forced to attend school online.  I want to pursue how internet access needs to be more widely available for students in lower income brackets.  I understand many students attend Universities on a full ride scholarship, however their family is low income and may not have the resources at home to fully attend classes online.  To track my sources I plan on using a word document and using Easy Bibs in order to get the correct citations.  I like using easyBibs just because it's easy and simp...