Copy, paste, and steal (errr ... borrow)

Did I say, in my last post, that there is an immense amount of work involved after earning those 3 letters? Well, I take that back ... sort of. I'm being playful, of course, but really, thank goodness for copy, paste.

In just 3 weeks, our project team is having a "summit." In other words, we're having our first major meeting where everyone comes together and gives their input for where they think the direction of the project should head. Because I'm the lead for the motivation and technology side of the project, I've got to come up with a formal presentation whereby I outline for everyone the theoretical backings for the mathematics interventions we are planning to do. It's a bit scary to think that even though the two PIs (my boss being one of them) on this grant were able to procure a ton of money from NSF there are SO many gaps and unknowns to the project. For example, we are supposed to do three different types of interventions, each involving some kind of new learning technology. We're pretty sure about 2 of them. But that third one ... yeah, we have no idea.

And that's where I come in. They want me to figure out something that is theoretically solid and has a promising track-record for success. And this happens to be a lot of work. Rummaging through research papers, finding out what's theoretically sound, and coming up with something that might be able to work with what we are trying to do. Lucky for me, I have weapons ... copy, paste, and borrowing from some people I have spent many MANY years studying. For example, I have Bandura and Dweck in my boat. Track record for success? Oh yeah ... try DECADES of success! For my formal presentation I'll need the theoretical backings for my ideas ... already done that (copy and paste from dissertation defense)! Nice.

So yeah, having those three letters opens the door to an immense amount of work. But, as they say, "if you're smart enough to get into a Ph.D program, you're smart enough to get out of one too." Those smarts of getting out of one (e.g., copy, paste, steal [well, borrow] ) are the same ones that will make this work that much easier.