Research

Ah, research.  How the months have passed already.

I think that's the problem.  Other things happened, and now I'm rushing to finish teaching research methods and still have time for students to synthesize something from the research.

From this point, I'm starting to think about next year already, and planning how to start teaching research sooner.  Like most schools, sometimes there's a crush of teachers and students vying for computer lab time, and plans have to be modified.

I think the lesson here, for me, is that research is something that needs to be separated from computers, at least in part.  Too often research is seen as solely the province of computers, as if it can only be done with the aid of a computer.  Of course that's not true, since it was occurring long before we had these tools.  It does seem a bit cumbersome, though, to a generation of young people who conduct computer-based "research" so often, for so many things, on such a wide range of scales and projects.

Adding another layer to this shifting concept of "research," it seems, takes a little more careful planning and adapting than I had thought.