As I am looking around for PhD places (if you know of a call that would be open to a proposal on open learning via mobile devices, feel free to let me know), I realized that doing a PhD on my own is simply no longer logical in this new networked world. The least I could do is hook up with other researchers to start what could be called a collaborative mega-PhD.This idea makes sense, as no one subject can be viewed from one perspective alone. And education touches so many other fields: neuroscience (connections in the brain made during learning), cognitive psychology (when are we willing to engage to build new knowledge), technology (how can technology fit natural human learning with the least interference – maximizing learning affordances), pedagogy (how can learning be optimized via a model that fits natural human learning)… When linking all of these up, we would be able to better understand the fact of learning, and how it can be improved via different fields.
This cross-pollination will not only result in a more profound, all-round grounded set of research facts, but it will probably also be stronger, as the network of researchers working on it can strengthen each other by exchanging ideas popping up in their research.
This mega PhD idea also has another advantage. In many cases PhD’s result in so much data, that one person alone will have a difficult time analyzing it. So if a collaboration of PhD’rs would work on a similar case study to research hypothesis in their field, it will allow them to come to a common drill down of the generated data.
There is only one downside: working as a team can be difficult at times. So the human group factor is something to take into account. Nevertheless I would be up for it.
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