Final Blog (Prompts 9-10)
As this is a double-weighted post, you are to write twice as much as you usually do (I want this to be a substantive, original final series of posts). Please post one 1000-word blog post (+/-50 words)
Please address the following prompts:
These three things I know for certain about outdoor recreation research:
The first thing I know for certain about the topic of outdoor recreation is that the main focus of the research is finding different types of recreational activities and determining what ways they benefit the greater community. I have learned during my time here at lakehead within the ORPT that outdoor recreation can be anything from going on a hike down some trails to participating in sea kayaking.
The second thing I am certain about is that with the recent struggles battling against Covid 19 which resulted in many classes being pushed to an online style of learning has taken away from the hands-on experience of the outdoor recreation program but this change has enhanced the technical skills such as writing and researching. I feel like without the push of online learning I would have no clue how to operate and live through a screen which is a very important skill to be confident while online as technology is improving and enhancing itself everyday!
The third and final thing I know for certain regarding outdoor recreation research is that ethics play a huge part. Without ethics the researcher has nothing to protect them from anyone reading their blog for example if there is a controversial topic but the researcher took consideration to the ethics while writing their blog the readers can’t complain about certain things as ethics were used in the creation of the blog.
These three things I am still confused by:
The First thing I am confused by is how this new knowledge I have gained throughout the course of the semester will help me in the future down my current career path. Currently my ideal career path is to become a second grade teacher ideally but any elementary grade would be something I enjoy. With regards to the majority of the course content which focused on different research methods, designing research questions, and creating a podcast to represent the information researched on a certain topic.
The second thing I am still confused by is operating the Tumblr website. Throughout the course of the semester I struggled with navigating the website as well as using all the different functions available. I feel like this strayed me away from completing my blogs as I got more frustrated trying to maneuver through the website than actually writing up the blog posts. An alternative for this difficult website could be the discussion function of the D2L.
The final thing I am still confused about is how I can use and relate the material from the textbook into my research questions and proposals without them sounding weird. Throughout the textbook there were many different terms which I was unfamiliar with and wouldn’t have known how to use before taking this class.
These three things I know for certain about me as an outdoor recreation researcher:
The first thing I know for certain is that depending on the situation different research methods such as qualitative and quantitative would be more appropriate and effective depending on the information I am trying to gain from the research for example if I’m trying to figure out information about how someone feels when something happens I would use qualitative research as this method gains valuable information about how the participants feel rather than just using the participants as a number for data.
The next thing I know for sure about me as a researcher is that the chances of it happening in my eyes right now are not very good based on my current plans which involve me going through my classes in order to teach elementary school which where I would be teaching research like this is not something they typically teach.
The third and final thing I know for sure about me as an outdoor recreation researcher is that based on my current knowledge and understanding of research I feel I am in no position to lead any sort of research study.
These three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:
The first area I need to spend more time on developing my skills and learning is the research questions. I feel that if I can further develop my skills to create a variety of effective research questions both qualitative and quantitative it would enhance my research proposals and give me better information.
The second thing I believe I could improve upon would be my problem solving skills as well as my time management skills. Throughout the semester I often ran into problems while using the Tumblr website and creating my blog posts. For the blogs I felt the week that gave me the most problems would have been week 7 when we had to attend an academic seminar put on by other students here at lakehead university. During these seminars I felt extremely confused and unsure of all the different words being used and felt like I was not in the place to ask for definitions and explanations of just about every word as the presenters did not have much time as they rotated quickly. Next time I would try to attend something like this with a friend nearby so I could have someone translate and explain all the big words I don’t know.
The Final area I would like to work on is refining my research topic and finding different resources where I can find my information and getting more familiar with the different databases out there. I feel like finding research would be way easier if I was able to maneuver the different databases better.
References:
Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 3 Ethics in Social Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 40 - 62). essay, Pearson.
Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 4 Reviewing the Scholarly Literature and Planning a Study. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 62 - 79). essay, Pearson.
Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 11 Analysis of Quantitative Data. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 234 - 261). essay, Pearson.
Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 12 Qualitative Interviewing. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 261 - 278). essay, Pearson.
















