Despite the high of previous weeks, so far in December I have felt busy but not very productive. In an attempt to combat this unhelpful attitude, I have prepared one of my monthly updates. Read on to find out what's been going on for me this month!
Earlier in December...
At the beginning of the week, I received some bad news: Unfortunately, our rebuttal did not convince our reviewers and the paper my supervisors and I submitted to CHI 2020 was not accepted. I have been waiting to receive the final reviews before sharing on my blog. Although I am disappointed and have had to work hard to bounce back from the news, as I shared on Twitter, I learned a lot from the experience.
In amongst all this, most of December so far, in least in terms of my academic work, has been planning. Planning takes time, and I have hit a number of setbacks in recent days, but it is all important for getting the details right early on. Specifically, I met with my supervisors early on in the month to review the plans for the next study, and have been putting together the ethics application since then. This time last year I was doing the same thing for the previous study so I have felt a bit of déjà vu recently!
The ethics application deadline is coming up, and I still have a number of documents to prepare. I am trying to get a draft ready, but would rather take a little more time to get it right and submit it early next year than get an unfinished version submitted this year.
One more week of work this year...
Next week is the last week before most of us head off for Christmas. I have organised a small concert for the day centre where I volunteer, and will continue with the planning for most of the rest of the week.
Other than that, I will be going to the CDE Winter Event in London, consisting of a drinks reception on Wednesday evening and a grant writing workshop the following day.
I will take along a poster to demonstrate during the drinks reception, which outlines the method and some of the key results from the study in the paper I submitted to CHI. Here is a version of the poster in advance:
I am looking forward to the grant writing workshop, which will focus on the types of grants that are appropriate for CDE students, such as those that support the creative industries. I hope to learn how best to communicate ideas to funders, what is expected in a grant application, and how this differs from academic plans I have produced in the past.
Looking ahead to next year...
Looking ahead to 2020, it is time to pick myself up and continue with the research project. My supervisors and I are looking for a good place to re-submit our paper, perhaps turning it into a journal article if we can add some interview analysis to the quantitative analysis of the study. I also need to implement the augmented reality resources I need for the next study, which I will focus on when the ethics application is being considered by the ethics committee.
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