I'm getting increasingly frustrated with blogger.com. Apparently this blog is still being hosted (in cyberspace of course) at my acquiring excellence website. Of course if you try and go to that link acquiringexcellence.com/blog.html, you will find that there is nothing there. I've tried repeatedly to redirect my website acquiringexcellence.com to just this blog, but it still won't let me. I found a link on blogger for just this issue, and it told me it only takes 48 hours to "clear" the issue. It's now been more than a week, and still, no love from blogger.

So, here we come to my predicament. I don't want to keep this at blogspot.com. If I do, then I'm wasting money on my acquiringexcellence website which now has absolutely nothing on it. Do I persist in trying to redirect, or do I get a new domain?

I just finished reading a book called "Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion". He recommends using your name as a domain name. I questioned him in an email, and his explanation is that your name doesn't change, but your interests, businesses, opportunities can. That makes sense, but my name isn't really conducive to a website. The last letter of my name is the first letter of my last name. So, do I confuse people with two h's together in a URL? No, if I purchased a domain with my name, I think I would take out an h, and then in the website, make the "H" kind of like a symbol, if that makes sense?

While I've been working on my dissertation methodology review, I've also been experimenting with logos and website designs in photoshop. Here are some of my ideas:









If anyone is reading my blog, I'd appreciate your input. So number one, do I abandon my original website domain or wait patiently for blogger to get its act together. And, if I do buy a new domain with my name, which logo/background do you like best?

Thanks!

Website

I'm in the process of revamping my website. I figured there's no point in paying to have it hosted when there are so many sites that will allow me to redirect my domain. As such, I'm continuing to blog, and my hope is that after I clear up some technical difficulties, I will be able to redirect this blog to my original domain.

Right now, though, I need some ideas. I want to create my own logo. I've found multiple tutorials on how to create text graphics. So I plan on using one of those tutorials, but I'd really like to get some ideas for pictures to add into the logo. For any of you who are reading my blog, I'd love your suggestions. Here is what I'm interested in promoting:

Learning
Strategies
Non-traditional learners
Thinking
Ideas
Tutoring
Languages

More dissertation news

I spoke to the developer of the TIPP assessment today, and I think we've worked out a decent plan to evaluate both validity and reliability. I'm going to pass it by my mentor before I write up anything official, but as of now, here is what we're going to do:

In my request for participation, I will assign three dates where all participants will need to attend. At the first date, students will come and take a paper form of the TIPP assessment and leave. At the second date, students will come and take the TIPP assessment again, and before leaving will sit through a TIPP presentation. After the TIPP presentation, students will be asked to rank themselves on both character and sensory modes. Finally, they will be instructed to look for an email giving them access to their results and a list of strategies tied to those results. At the third meeting, students will be asked to complete a survey asking them to list three strategies they chose from their results they decided to employ and whether they would use those strategies again. The feeling is if the students were willing to use the strategies again, then those strategies were beneficial to the students.

I still need to explain my correlation methods / data analysis, but I feel I made some progress today.

mentors, committee members... etc

I got an okay from a professor in the school psychology specialization yesterday and was extremely excited. She seemed genuinely interested in my study. But, just as I was about to submit her name on my committee form, I realized that if I did, my request would be rejected. My other committee member is from general psychology, which means I currently have no committee members from the educational psychology specialization, which is against policy. I thought about it and decided well, if I really wanted this school psychology professor on my committee, I just need to find another professor from the educational psychology specialization to be on my committee. It doesn't really seem fair to one of my original committee members, but to be honest, I haven't done anything yet that the original committee member has to see. He has probably been waiting in limbo, well, beside his other responsibilities, while I move slowly through this dissertation process. So, I sought out another professor, one I actually had for a class or two during both my MS and PhD programs. He immediately replied and accepted my request, but then added that he thought I could have chosen a better method for proving validity.

So, now what? Well, I'm not ready to submit my committee form yet. Right now, I suppose I could submit either both names or simply the Ed Psych professor's name, but I'm going to hold off at least until Friday. Tomorrow, I have a scheduled phone call with Shelly Loewen, the developer of the TIPP assessment. I will talk to her again about my plans to prove face validity and also the suggestion for a more rigorous validity study. And, then hopefully, I'll feel more confident about both the direction of my study and my selection of committee members.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid

I received the draft of the 2010-2011 FAFSA today. I plan to look it over this week and will hopefully have a video blog up soon regarding the changes from last year. But for now, here are some important things to consider:

1) You cannot fill out the new FAFSA until after January 1, 2010.
2) It is better for you to estimate your taxes on the FAFSA and get it submitted as soon as possible than to wait until after your taxes are filed. Many school-based and outside scholarships are first come, first serve. And, you can always make adjustments to your FAFSA, if needed, after you file your taxes.
3) NEVER pay anyone to fill out your FAFSA. This application is FREE, hence its name. The financial aid officers at your intended school are paid to assist you through the process of applying for financial aid. But, if they're not available, there are others, like me, who would be happy to answer questions about the FAFSA free of charge. DO NOT go to FAFSA.com to fill out your FAFSA online. Yes, you can complete the FAFSA online, but the ONLY website where you should go to do this is http://www.fafsa.ed.gov