Mike Urmeneta, Ed.D.

Tools for the Doctoral Journey – Reading

by

Computer: Macbook Pro

  • I had this computer since 2013 and it worked really well.  It is probably because I maxed out the specs at the time.  I didn’t see the need to buy anything new for this.

Cloud Storage: Dropbox 2TB Individual Account

  • There is a lot of material to manage in a doctoral program so it is best to keep organized from the beginning.  It is not unusual to have to read 5-10 journal articles a week. Each of these could be 20+ pages each.  
  • You want to keep them all.
  • My program has 12 week quarters all year round and I was taking 2 classes per quarter.
  • In Dropbox, I created a folder for each class.
    • I then created 12 sub-folders for each week of class, labelled “Week 01, Week 02… Week 12”
    • I also created a folder for “Classwork” which included syllabi etc.
  • I converted as much as I could to PDF so I could store them all here.
  • I linked Dropbox to every computer I worked on, as well as to my iPhone and iPad so I could access all my files from anywhere.
  • $9.99 / month (yearly subscription)
  • https://www.dropbox.com/plans?trigger=nr

Google Scholar

  • As much as I love my university library, the database search engine function is archaic and requires you to use specific terms. This uses Google’s search engine technology to find articles. 
  • General Use
    • After I find articles I like, I check to see if they are peer reviewed using Ulrichsweb (see below) and then click through using to Kopernio (also below) download them. 
  • For Literature Review
  • In Atlas.ti, I looked for codes that tagged bibliography items
  • I then copied and pasted them to Google Scholar
  • I then imported the article citations to Mendeley
    • Settings for this
  • Click on hamburger menu, settings, Bibliography menu, Show like to import citations into “RefMan”
  • This creates an “Import into RefMan” link option at the bottom of articles.
  • When I find a research article I like, I click on that link and it will import into Mendeley
  • Free
  • https://scholar.google.com/

Ulrichsweb

Kopernio

  • This is a browser plug-in for Chrome that uses your university credentials to simplify access to full research article PDF’s.
  • I then add them to a class folder or temp folder in dropbox
  • I then add it to Mendeley
  • Free
  • https://kopernio.com/

Ebook to PDF Convertor: Epubor Ultimate and Epubor-kcr-converter

Reference and Citation Manager: Mendeley

  • I used this to store reference information for every article, book and website I came across.
  • I created a folder structure that mirrored what was in my cloud storage. 
  • I then linked the articles from Dropbox to the folders in Mendeley.
  • The PDF documents could then be so seen here and searched within the program itself.
  • For things that could not be put into PDF format like books and websites, I also created a reference citation.
  • As I wrote, I would search through the entire database using key words
  • I would then skim through the articles it would serve up for relevancy.
  • I would use the Word add-in to drop the reference into the body of my writing.
  • I would finally add the reference to the end of my document.
  • For Literature Review
    • I looked up articles in Google Scholar
    • I then added the references (if not the whole PDF) to Mendeley

Tablet: iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

  • This was the first model that had the Apple Pencil.  It was about 3 years old and it also worked well.

Reading and Annotating: iAnnotate for the iPad

  • As mentioned above, there is a LOT of reading in a doctoral program.  I started out printing every article out until I realized after the first week that I printed out over 100 pages.  This was going to be unsustainable for the long haul and I needed another solution.
  • I had a new iPad with a pen so I decided to try reading and highlighting PDF’s electronically.  This worked out really well.  
  • iAnnotate connected to my Dropbox account seamlessly.
  • When I needed to read something, I just called it up from the app.  
  • The PDF’s were clear.  The pen felt natural had options to highlight and annotate.
  • I was able to search through the document using key words.
  • When I was finished, I closed the document.  Any annotations were saved along with the PDF back to Dropbox which also synced to Mendeley.
  • $9.99 one time
  • https://apps.apple.com/us/app/iannotate-4-read-markup-share/id1093924230

Phone: iPhone

  • I did not buy a new phone just for this.  I just used what I had.

Speed Reading without Annotating: Voice Dream Reader for the iPhone

  • Again, there is a LOT of reading in a doctoral program.
  • I didn’t have a lot of time to read, but I was also commuting 2 hours a day for work.
  • Voice Dream takes PDF’s and reads them around via voice recognition software.
  • It didn’t sound as robotic as you would think and after playing around, I found an Australian accent that really gibed with me.   
  • I was able to change the read back speed to a fairly high rate and would be able to “read” and get the gist of a 20 page article in an hour.
  • If you think about it, this amounts to 40 pages a day or 200 pages a week.
  • I would then jot down notes after my drive and skim through the articles if I didn’t have time to do a proper read.
  • $9.99
  • https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-dream-reader/id496177674

Post-it Tabs: Post-it Tabs Value Pack, Assorted Primary Colors, Durable, Writable, Reposition-able

Colored Pens: Sharpie 1802225 Pen, Fine Point, Assorted Colors, 6-Count

Highlighters: Sharpie 27145 Pocket Highlighters, Chisel Tip, Assorted Colors, 12-Count