Category: Institute of Education

Time is Marching On: A 4 Q 2021 Update

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While the original intent of this blog was to catalog the first years of my PhD Distance Learning Experience, I have returned now well into my penultimate year to provide a much-needed update. If not for any other reason, I needed a break from statistical analyses and am now prepared to take stock of what’s been accomplished during the last 18 months…

  • A little more than a year ago, and following my MPhil/PhD Upgrade, I accepted two posts at UCL including a PGTA to the Digital Media Masters Students Programme and a Content Developer for the EdD Education Programme. Both were incredibly gratifying and I was able to contribute, particularly leveraging my previously honed at-distance skills that came in handy when helping others migrate to new ways of learning and instruction online. After all, no one knew in 2018 of the coming pandemic.
  • Both PGTA and CD roles enabled me to pursue and receive Associate Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA, Advanced HE) from February, 2021.  Since that time, I’ve been fortunate to be welcomed as a Full Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and an Impact Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE).
  • On the research front, I’ve completed the design, pilot, production and data collection for the SensorAble project. I am “well down the road” regarding data analysis and have started to author my materials, including both the Methods and Results section for both my Dissertation and Journal Articles. I’ve also presented my findings at both UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Development Diversity Lab and at the University of Cambridge Cognition Education and Emotion Lab.
  • I am motivated to begin helping shape Public Policy by contributing on both sides of the Atlantic. This includes building upon my recent appointment as Chairperson for the Center for Autistic and Related Disabilities (CARD) at Florida Atlantic University, and in authoring forthcoming POSTNotes on invisible disabilities to Parliament. I’ll be making applications for various grants (small pots of money!) to help contribute to shining a light on neurodiversity issues relating to sensory, attention and anxiety at both HEI, employment and social venues.
  • Last summer, I began shifting my focus from doctoral training to cognitive and human computer interaction (HCI) knowledge building. The latter is now begin to catch up to the former as my research was decidedly less technologically oriented in the earlier phases. I am now happily exploring Open Learner Models, artificial intelligence, machine learning, multimodal learning analytics, etc.
  • As I look to publish my first journal article, I have participated in numerous conferences and continue to increase my communication and dissemination skills. Four OSF Pre-prints are now registered and available on GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, UCL Explore, and elsewhere.  I even managed to complete a peer review for an  article on behalf of my supervisor Sarah White, and also assisted my other supervisor Joni Holmes in editing her journal article.

There’s much more planned for the remainder of the next phase of my journey (i.e., the upcoming 18 months prior to defending my dissertation). It is my fervent hope that I will include these benchmarks in coming posts. For now…stay safe, healthy and enjoy the holidays!

SensorAble Participant Public Information Studies Now Closed

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Thank you
I am pleased to report that both the SensorAble Online Focus Group and Surveys are now completed. Thanks to everyone who provided their incredible participation, guidance and kindness.
SensorAble Online Survey
Your support may lead to the development of theory and research that just might make the world a little less distracting and anxiety-producing for the neurodiverse.
SensorAble Focus Group

Stay tuned to this space as I continue to scrub the data, and provide updates on what the research yields. Baby steps initially, leading to the development of my PhD thesis and hopefully some tangible results that provide autonomy, greater participation and comfort at both school, work and other venues.

Thank you and please stay safe and well during these most unusual times.

Research in the Age of COVID-19

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While the rest of the world contends with migrating from their classrooms, laboratories and offices to their residential “stand-ins”, academia in my environment has remained largely consistent.

In particular, my doctoral research has culminated into the production of four draft reports, all of which are giving way to a shift from coursework to purer research outcome. These last two weeks, for example, have been spent provisioning focus group (N=15) and questionnaire/survey (N=150) for the SensorAble project.

Face-to-Face…no longer

However, what were once intended to be a series of face-to-face appointments both in the United Kingdom and here in Florida, all data collection has now migrated fully to the ether…whereby all meetings and research occur online.

The transition has been a rather smooth one, owing in large part to my 14-month immersion as an online doctoral student. While working fully “at distance”, my familiarity with deploying and collecting information via the internet has been rather customary; moreover, I am delighted to say enjoyable.

Online, group-think

Too, and as a board of governance member, post-graduate research instructor, Student Trustee, and member of two academic laboratories at University–all have embedded the requisite know-how and confidence to carry out online, group-think and administrative sessions.

So with that, SensorAble research commenced today with Focus Groups split into smaller, manageable sessions of 2-3 participants max. The next two weeks are nearly fully booked, and if today’s session is any indication…there are many surprises, confirmations and wondrous relationships to be developed.

Participatory Co-Design In Action

Thus far, co-design, candid conversation and critical exploration of the lived-experience, thoughts and opinions of at-risk individuals autistic adolescents and adults have gone extremely well. Activities including recruitment, ethics consultations, consent, authentic involvement and post-mortem dialogue– all have yielded superlative feedback.

As these days pass, I will be scrubbing videos for pertinent and instructive moments, transcriptions and coding data that bear fruit in support of research questions and hypotheses…all in order to analyse, uncover trends and discover proper languaging and designs of the follow-on survey/questionnaires. The focus group participants have been largely responsible for providing exemplary “pearls” and I am eager to begin sharing their incredible insight with others.

Q&A with David Ruttenberg

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UCL Ruttenberg Q&A Screen CaptureUCL’s Institute of Education recently conducted an interview with me and published the same within their websites along with a link to this blog. Within the article, I am hoping to bring attention, not only to my research, but to my richly deserving supervisors Prof Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta, Dr Sarah White and Dr Joni Holmes.

I do hope that this promotion helps emphasize the importance and stature of the faculty at the IoE. It is an equally great “get” for the Centre for Doctoral Education, the Culture, Communication and Media department, the Knowledge Lab and UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, and in particular, the Development Diversity Lab. I enjoy promoting our Knowledge Lab Seminar Series too.

So do have a read and let me know your thoughts.