If you follow the blog then you’ll know that I’m at the end stages of my Masters in Research.  That means I’m in the all consuming land of dissertation.

At the moment my days consist of listening to interviews, trying to remember why on earth I wrote cryptic notes during said interviews and trying to work out what said interviews and cryptic notes mean.  It’s lots of fun.

Anyway, my engagement in such fun activities means that I won’t be blogging much over the next month or so.  I will when I have time, when I’m procrastinating (there’s a good chance my post count will go up rather than down!) and when I have something I just really need to say out loud.

In the meantime why not click on one of the things on the right?  You can get great book, a free e-book, listen to some great podcasts, find out about Christian Aid week or sponsor David’s London Marathon run for Kidney Research… or all of them!

Thanks for your support and patience.

Just before Christmas I was beginning to really worry about my masters research.  I had an idea for a project but no clue how to gather the data.  I still think it’s a good idea so I’ll keep it for another time…

Thankfully, I was asked to do something else, a project review.  This fitted perfectly with the core idea of my Masters programme, that it is should be about real world research.  So, over the past couple of weeks I’ve met with 6 focus groups of stakeholders and interviewed two key personnel.  I’ve got data coming out of my ears… now to get analysing and writing up.

What I have learned so far is that I really enjoyed the process.  I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think I’d like to do more of this kind of thing so if you have a project that you need evaluating or something you want to find out people’s perceprions of then give me a shout.

I might just be interested… after May!!!

I’m not big on resolutions.  I’m not sure they serve much purpose, especially when they are things we don’t really intend to do or stick to for long.  So, instead I’m going to set some personal goals for the year.  I have a forward plan for my work so these goals are just for me.

In 2010 I will:

complete my Masters in Research

I don’t have a lot of choice in this one but I hope to have my dissertation complete by the end of April. I’ve changed the whole concept of my research and instead of something on social media I’m going to be doing a project evaluation with a church in Linwood.

run / cycle / walk more

In 2000 my brother-in-law and I ran a half marathon.  Since then he has completed the Maggies Monster Bike & Hike, I’ve sat on my couch!  I’ve never felt better in my life than when I was running regularly so I’m going to start getting out more.  Avril got some running gear from Santa so I’ll have company.  I also bought some lights for my bike so I have no excuse for not getting out on it over the dark winter months (apart from the snow and ice!) and we are going to climb more hills this year as once I get my Masters out of the road we should have some more leisure time!

learn to play the guitar

My oldest son is learning guitar at school.  I have one and I can’t play it.  I want to learn. Hopefully this will be something we and I can do together.

read

I like to read but don’t do it often.  I go through little splurges of reading a lot then maybe nothing for a few months.  The TV is going off more and books will be read.  After The Guns of Navarone, obviously.

write

They say that everyone has a book in them.  I want to see if mine is ready to come out yet.  I’m not committing to a huge project but I want to write more in this blog and write a related e-book about one of the topics I’m passionate about.

take more photos

Perhaps that should be ‘take better photos’ but I read somewhere that your photos get better after your first 10,000 so perhaps quantity is important.  I started a 365 project last year, trying to take a photo a day, but it ended up in scrambling about to find some random thing to take a photo of.  Instead, I’m going to try to take my camera with me more, take it out of my bag and take more photos.  You can see the results on my Flickr page.

I know that doesn’t sound a very exciting or even particularly ambitious list but I will be very pleased if by the end 2010 I can run 10 miles without stopping, have climbed a dozen hills, can play 10 songs on the guitar, have read 20 books, have an Masters degree and some decent photos of all that.

So, what are your goals for 2010?

I restarted my Masters in Research today with a meeting with the dissertation module supervisor who might also end up being my dissertation supervisor if he’s unlucky.  I deferred my dissertation because of my trips to the Holy Land and Cuba this summer and I’m glad that I did.  I would have been annoyed to hand in something rushed.

So, I’m pretty much back to the start.

I’m still looking at a youth work and social media topic but I have a few weeks to come up with a definitive question.

It was nice to be back and I’m looking forward the process… Bet I’m not saying that in a few months!

I think I’ve decided to do my research for my masters on the use of social media in church-based youth work in Scotland.  I could of course change my mind again but on reflection this seems to be something that would be both interesting and worth doing.

I’d still like to have a go at ‘does youth work work?’ but think that might make a better large scale project for me and my lovely colleagues at the URC.

So, If you’re reading this and are involved in church-based youth work in Scotland let me know so I can come and interview you and your young people some time in the new year.

Anyone with any ideas and/or suggestions, please feel free to contribute said ideas anytime you like.

And I’ll try not to bore you all.  Honest.

I’m almost done with my Masters in Research.  I have two modules to complete then a dissertation.  The dissertation takes the form of a small research project.  I want to get started soon and have it completed so I can graduate next November at the latest.  If I’m super organised I could graduate in July.

Being super organised would include actually choosing a topic to research.  That’s when things get complicated.

I have three potential topics:

1: Youth work and social media – models of good practice using web2.0 tools to work with young people

2: Does youth work work? – Does employing a youth worker make a difference? Probably a case study

3: Towards an evaluation framework – how could churches/projects evaluate what they do? Working towards an evaluation framework.

This is where you come in.  Any thoughts, comments, ideas, avenues to pursue and general advice and suggestions would be very welcome.

There are lots of people I know who read this blog who never or rarely comment.  It would be great to hear from some of you about this as I’d really value as much input as possible.

Stewart

Tonight was the last day of term for my Masters in Research classes.  I have a literature review to write and that’s me done for this year.  It seems to have gone very quickly and I’ve done ok (Bs for almost everything).  I’ve got two more modules to do then my research project and dissertation and that’s me done.

I’ve enjoyed this year.  Met some nice people, learned some interesting stuff.  Now all I need to do is refine my research topic and get on with it.