Not doing rubbish research on technology enhanced learning Professor Maggi Savin-Baden

CAVES (Colleagues against virtually everything) What are the issues in research technology enhanced learning?

Issues Qualitative research needs to be methodologically positioned Not just interviews, dislocated from a personal and methodological stance

Personal stance StanceBias A personal stance is a researcher’s position towards an issue that is derived from that person’s beliefs and views about the world. Researchers’ personal stances reflect their deeply held attitudes, opinions and concerns about what is important, which in turn influences their research decisions, such as what topic they take up, who they include in their studies and how they will collect and analyse data. Bias is a preconception or preference that limits one’s ability to consider alternatives. In research, ignoring bias could mean failing to recognise one’s preconceptions and the influence these have on how researchers unintentionally influence research, such as how they frame questions, interact with participants and view data.

Issues to consider when choosing a methodology What is the relationship between the methodology and the context of the research? What type of data will you collect? How will you analyse and interpret data? What are the ethical issues and how will you tackle them? How will you ensure your data are plausible?

Research approaches Action research Appreciative Inquiry Arts-based research Auto ethnography Case study Collaborative inquiry Co-operative inquiry Deliberative inquiry Duo ethnography Ethnodrama Ethnography Evaluative methods Grounded theory Life history research Life course research Narrative inquiry Phenomenology Qualitative research synthesis

Positioning research

Options for researching TEL Design-based research Ethnography for the internet Immersive ethnography Digital arts-based research

Ethnography for the internet ethnography of, in and through the virtual – we learn about the Internet by immersing ourselves in it and conducting our ethnography using it, as well as talking with people about it, watching them use it and seeing it manifest in other social settings. (Hine, 2000)

Immersive ethnography This combines ethnography with studies on immersion, suggesting that to gain in-depth understanding of virtual worlds researchers need to: Live and work immersively in virtual worlds for over a year Collect data through residing in virtual worlds and observing and participating in activities Problematize culture norms See everything in virtual worlds as data This approach moves beyond just collecting interviews and watching what people do in world.

Digital arts-based research User centric story telling Digital installation art Vidding Digital métissage

User centric story telling Participatory narratives involve creating, critiquing, and curating so that everyday heroes create their own quests and journeys. For example, interactive installation, From Memory to Action, at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Collective narratives: where the authorial voice is formed by the contributions of many, who in turn create aggregated mega stories e.g. The Question Bridge project which defines itself as a collective trans-media project that is creating a ‘mega-logue’ among black men in the U.S. Mobile narratives: told through whatever sources people choose to use on the move: apps or superimposing video, poems and animation in any environment. ‘Gradually Melt the Sky,’ creates a performance event ‘at once cosmic and mundane, an action painting and a protest’ (Skwarek, & Pappenheimer, 2011).

Digital installation art Activities such as projects, interactive videos, virtual worlds interactions, and installations. For example, projection techniques are used to create immersive environments so that audiences will feel engaged and immersed.

Vidding Vidding is where content is refashioned or recreated in order to present a different perspective, usually based on music videos and television programmes. The purpose of vidding is to critique, re-present and explore an aspect of the original media.

Digital métissage Digital métissage is based on the idea of literary métissage as which is the process of creating stories that are braided together and rooted in history and memory, as well as being stories of be-coming. Digital métissage captures the idea of blurring genres, texts, histories and stories in digital formats that recognise the value and spaces between and across cultures, generations and representational forms. The process of digital métissage requires co-production and co creation with participants in ways that braid data and stories.

Carl Leggo As a poet and fiction writer, I am always seeking ways to compose stories and essays in creative performances. Digital métissage is a way of creative braiding

do I need to know where I have come from where I am going the whirling dervish of derivation & delineation perhaps I should make up stories and learn to live well in the places of métissage where stories know what I can’t know: even as I braid the possibilities & the possibilities braid me

Issues to consider Online interviewing – What are data – Thick description versus ‘short data’ Consent Ethics Representation and portrayal

Interesting questions Does digital research really exist? Has Web 2.0 has brought new sites, new practices, new theoretical frameworks? Are there too many choices? Are we lured by the readily available? Will this encourage/force us to be more participatory researchers?

Who has a question?