The above word cloud provides a summary of what "The voices of tenure-track faculty: Their transitional experiences" poster is about. Based upon the qualitative phenomenological research study that five other researchers and I did for our Qualitative Research I course to "explore the transitional experience of newly-hired tenure-track faculty at a research one institution. Newly hired tenure-track faculty is defined as faculty participating in any stage of the tenure process prior to being granted tenure." We investigated tenure preparation pertaining to politics and culture, daily responsibilities, supportive relationships, unexpected barriers to progress, as well as the overall gist of the tenure experience. The themes and findings that emerged provided us with suggestions as to how the tenure process might be revamped for overall improvement. The full poster presentation is below and describes what resources were used to produce it.

SOESA Poster Presentation: "The voices of tenure-track faculty: Their transitional experiences."

Reference:
Evans, A. D., Adams, I. S., Richmond, J. A., Spruill, N. R. (2008, February). The voices of tenure-track faculty: Their transitional experiences. Poster presentation at the 3^rd Annual School of Education Student Association Research Conference, Blacksburg, VA.

This is a poster that I created for the 2008 School of Education Student Association (SOESA) 3rd annual conference in Blacksburg, VA. Research for developing this poster consisted of researching and referring to the following sites for information about presenting quality poster presentations:

1. Advice on designing scientific posters.
   Colin Purrington. Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.
   http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm
   
2. Creating effective poster presentations.
   George Hess, Kathryn Tosney, Leon Liegel.
   http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters
3. PhD Poster Gallery.
   http://phdposters.com/gallery.php

My Word Cloud - How my CV defines ME

Web 2.0 technologies never cease to amaze me. We talk a lot about how visuals are more effective, but many of us do not take the time to create the visuals. What I love about the new slew of Web 2.0 tools is that they make the visualization process so easy. You can still read my CV for the full description of me and my skills, but you can also understand who--and what--I am, thanks to Wordle.net:

Amber D. Evans' CV (Curriculum Vitae)

My Curriculum Vitae (or CV).

How does one keep track of all that they do?

I use a smattering of methods, but they're all digital and they're all online. Mostly, I use Google Applications such as Google Calendar and Google Documents to keep track of when and descriptions of what, respectively. This process turns out to be quite easy as I schedule items on a daily basis and then document these activities on a weekly basis. It not only saves me a lot of time in the end whenever I need to update my CV or provide my dept. with an annual progress report, but it also gives me a chance to reflect upon what I have been up to (and to see what trends or areas are of interest to me).

In research, I've found that it is too easy to get into the details of a particular (proverbial) tree and I soon lose sight of the (proverbial) forest. With my brain so actively engaged in my studies and research, I sincerely cannot remember what I had for breakfast just an hour ago. If left to my recollection--oh, dear! Imagine trying to remember whatever it was that I did two, six, or nine months ago! Using daily appointments (in the Calendar) to track activities, meetings, people, or events, these can then be translated into detailed notes and descriptions during my 30-minute weekly session. I'm not left struggling to figure out what I did or who I met with, nor am I stuck trying to figure out how I got to where I am now.

The best part is that it is all fresh in my mind, making it easy to write short (reflective and descriptive) summaries. Eventually, these may or may not go into my final CV, but if nothing else it is recorded as a transaction of what I'm doing with my time ... what I'm doing with my life ... and gives me a chance to actively reflect upon whether or not it's going where I'd like for it to go.