post-class reflection

I really enjoyed yesterday's discussions. One thing that stood out for me was our consideration of the notion of affordances and constraints. This morning, I've been re-reading Gibson, Greeno and others who have talked about these constructs. I'm struck how little writing exists around these concepts in relation to technology and the qualitative research process. Perhaps, this speaks to the idea of varied fields/disciplines having conversations, while rarely talking to one another. Nonetheless, as we progress this semester, I hope that we can begin to evaluate digital tools within the framework of "affordances and constraints" -- something that is perhaps more commonly applied other contexts/fields (http://www.newschooltechnology.org/2011/08/tpack-and-systemic-integration-affordances-and-constraints/).

Laying the foundation...

3 hours post-class...

When thinking and discussing foundational aspects of qual, the image of layers always come to mind.

I tend to think about the qualitative research process as a layered process, one that is always already unfolding. Thinking about qualitative work as layered pushes me to think about the process as not being simply about procedures (aka methods). This is perhaps one of the central concerns about making decisions around the uses of technologies in qualitative research. Does the research process drive the decision making process or the tool itself?

 Another thing that is sitting with me is the whole notion of us as researchers being ready to push the technologies to do what you, as the researcher, need. I think this comes back to whether the feature of a tools drive the research or the research drives the decisions around tools.

Baron's work

I thought you all might be interested in taking a closer look at Baron's work. She has an ongoing research study focused on comparing reading onscreen to reading on paper. This touches on the whole notion of going paperless, which is something we will all be exploring this semester.  Also, Dr. Jennifer Lubke (UT-Chatanooga) will be giving us a talk on the process of going paperless as researchers on February 11th.

http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/nbaron.cfm

Reflections on Our First Class

Introductions

It is always inspiring to meet with a group of scholars who are committed to exploring methodological affordances and limitations in relation to emergent technologies and qualitative research practices. A few things that stood out for me after meeting all you today...

The emphasis on "everyday" data sources. Many of you bring with you an orientation to making sense of 'life' (or your area of research, more generally) as it happens in everyday acts. From student interactions to online discussions to teacher knowledge to students comments to museum learning, etc., we can make sense of how life happens. Such data, I hope, will be exciting for you to explore in relation to new technologies.

I am also still thinking about our discussion regarding the sheer amount of reading that academic life brings with it. I recognize this course does not shy away from reading  - and reading extensively. One thing I was just reflecting upon is how graduate school can become a place where you begin to develop an 'internal' and 'external' library. This library is one that comes about from conversations with advisers and classmates, as well as the courses you take. The contents within this library, however, require us to develop strategies that support us in moving through masses of readings.

In academic life you often hear the phrase, "staying up with the literature". Where do we find the time to do this? With all of the duties that work, and just life in general, bring us...how can we "stay up"? This is something I think about often, as it certainly is an ongoing challenge. A couple of things to play with are learning to "peruse" the literature and mark items that are central to your work and worth really digging into again and again. Another thing to keep in mind is that these central pieces/publications are often papers that we end up reading again and again and again. Then, we use them to build arguments, and, at times, even build our research around. Perhaps this semester we can begin to share our strategies for "staying up" with the literature, as this is a really important part of carrying out research and (ultimately) speaking to a research community.

Another thing I'm reflecting upon...why blogs? Why might we choose to blog as researchers? There is certainly not one answer to this question. Just a few thoughts. Blogs, perhaps, can be viewed as everyday artifacts of thinking about and doing research and being a researcher. As qualitative researchers, we are always looking for ways to chronicle our thinking, our decision-making process, our musings, our unexpected understandings, etc. We often view writing itself as inquiry -- a central part of the research process. Blogs are one way to go about doing this in a potentially very public way. Of course, you can certainly keep your blog private, which is something I do with all of my research projects. For instance, I'm currently carrying out a study with a colleague around graduate students' experiences of grief. We have a collaborative, password protected reflexivity blog. We share reflexive musings about our data collection and analysis process, and also chronicle our collaborative process. I'm sure we'll learn of many additional examples this semester.

All this to say...I'm looking forward to what the next semester brings. I'm sure I will learn a great deal from each of you and my own research practices will be challenged.

I'm looking forward to a meaningful and productive semester...

Welcome to Y650!

Hello All ~

I am looking forward to beginning the semester with all of you! This course has come about after a 2+ year book project with my colleagues Trena Paulus (at University of Tennessee) and Paul Dempster (formerly at University of Leeds). Much of what we discuss and practice this semester is based our studies over the last few years, as related to digital tools and qualitative research. Further, I anticipate learning a great deal from all of you. I'm always inspired to learn about emergent technologies that lead us to rethink theoretical and methodological practices and expand what we can know about everyday life.

I'll be using this blog site to chronicle my own journey through the course. You too will set up your blogs, sharing your reading notes and reflexive musings.

I look forward to it!

JNL