I really wish I could condense all these assorted research areas into one coherent pile. I feel like all my research this semester is sitting in a big laundry basket full of mismatched socks, pants, white t-shirts, and colored t-shirts getting wrinkled. I long to shake it all out and fold everything neatly, organizing by color and type. But who has time?
I'm exaggerating a bit, the literature review and the 2 blogs I have are helping me stay somewhat organized, but I still wish I could have more insight into where this is all leading.
The areas I am looking at this semester include:
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation
Designing instruction for motivation
Creativity and intrinsic motivation
Impact of motivational instruction on creativity
Project Based Learning
The Maker Movement
Creativity training
Google+ Communities
IPads in the art room
Using Visible Thinking Strategies to improve creative thinking processes
Assessing creativity

They are mostly loosely connected, but as I work on my annotated bibliography, and items for my evaluation portfolio, and topics for other research papers, I find myself pulled into topics that I am ultimately not as excited about. The topics I am really excited about: The Maker Movement and Creativity Training do not have as much research on them so I write about topics loosely related which do have a lot of information. My concern is when I actually pick a dissertation topic that it will not be one I am REALLY excited about. I've seen too many people lose interest at some point through the diseartion process because they chose a topic that they were not passionate about.

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." 
Confucious