Scholars of education and English explain how to conduct research in online spaces about learning and making meaning online. Acknowledging the evolving nature of online spaces, they advocate for a pragmatic approach to data collection and analysis that will support a rich understanding of meaning making in these environments. Their topics include how learning in online spaces can be informed by qualitative research, the kinds of online spaces that exist, conceptualizing learning in online space, what it means to be a qualitative researcher of online spaces, methodological tools available for collecting data, approaches to data analysis, ethical research, and how research might change. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Qualitative researchers have grappled with how online inquiry shifts research procedures such as gaining access to spaces, communicating with participants, and obtaining informed consent. Drawing on a multimethod approach, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces explores how to design and conduct diverse studies in online environments. Authors Hannah R. Gerber, Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Jen Scott Curwood, and Alecia Marie Magnifico focus on formal and informal learning practices that occur in evolving online spaces. The text shows researchers how they can draw upon a variety of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and data sources. Examples of qualitative research in online spaces, along with guiding questions, support readers at every phase of the research process.
Recenzijas
For breaking the barrier of technology and qualitative research, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces is a confidence builder for those who have never ventured into such spaces. Very thoughtful and accessible, I highly recommend this text. -- Darnell Bradley This book helps students not only to understand the complexities of researching online learning but also how they can apply these theoretical perspectives to their own research through its extensive and varied examples of contemporary online research. -- Damiana Gibbons Pyles This book takes online qualitative research methods to the next level in terms of innovative methods, data collection and analysis, as well as mapping out a more nuanced and useful set of ethical perspectives to guide researcher practice in online spaces. -- Pamela Whitehouse In a rapidly evolving field, this book stands as valuable point of reference. It offers a lively, thoughtful and critical commentary on learning in online spaces, and challenges readers to do the same. The authors offer an agenda to advance the field further, identifying the foundational issues and approaches to studying these which will shape new work in the years ahead. -- Martin Oliver In the long history of education, online learning is a recent advancement of pedagogy. Online instructors, researchers, and students have, to-date, simultaneously enacted a range of individualized methods to conduct their work, while seeking a primer on guidelines to follow that does not exist. Finally, they have Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces to help them organize their efforts, ethics, tools, and definitions and they no longer have to spend valuable research time seeking such standards. -- Robert G. Doyle
|
List of Figures, Tables, and Spotlight Boxes |
|
|
ix | |
Foreword: Conducting Qualitative Research in the Moment |
|
xi | |
|
Preface |
|
xix | |
Acknowledgments |
|
xxiii | |
Authors' Note |
|
xxiv | |
About the Authors |
|
xxv | |
|
Chapter One How Can Learning in Online Spaces Be Informed by Qualitative Research? |
|
|
1 | (18) |
|
|
1 | (1) |
|
Mediated Spaces and Online Learning |
|
|
1 | (1) |
|
Making Pragmatic Choices About Methods |
|
|
2 | (2) |
|
Choosing Among Qualitative Traditions |
|
|
4 | (1) |
|
|
5 | (5) |
|
|
5 | (1) |
|
|
6 | (1) |
|
|
7 | (1) |
|
|
8 | (1) |
|
|
9 | (1) |
|
Research Paradigms and Philosophical Stances in a Study's Design |
|
|
10 | (3) |
|
Pragmatic Research and Remix: Considering Multimethod Approaches |
|
|
13 | (4) |
|
|
13 | (4) |
|
|
17 | (1) |
|
|
17 | (2) |
|
Chapter Two What Kinds of Online Spaces Exist? |
|
|
19 | (18) |
|
|
19 | (1) |
|
Conceptualizing Online Spaces as Field Sites |
|
|
19 | (2) |
|
|
21 | (2) |
|
Understanding Networked Field Sites |
|
|
23 | (3) |
|
Learning in Social Networking Forums |
|
|
26 | (3) |
|
Layers of Learning in Formal Learning Spaces |
|
|
29 | (1) |
|
Mapping Networked Field Sites |
|
|
30 | (4) |
|
|
34 | (1) |
|
|
35 | (2) |
|
Chapter Three How Do We Conceptualize Learning in Online Spaces? |
|
|
37 | (28) |
|
|
37 | (1) |
|
Using Learning Theory as a Tool for Research Design |
|
|
37 | (1) |
|
Complementary and Contradictory Theories of Learning |
|
|
38 | (3) |
|
|
41 | (10) |
|
Behaviorist Theories of Learning |
|
|
41 | (3) |
|
Cognitive and Sociocognitive Theories of Learning |
|
|
44 | (3) |
|
Sociocultural Theories of Learning |
|
|
47 | (4) |
|
Learning in Online Spaces |
|
|
51 | (10) |
|
|
53 | (3) |
|
|
56 | (2) |
|
|
58 | (3) |
|
|
61 | (1) |
|
|
61 | (4) |
|
Chapter Four What Does It Mean to Be a Qualitative Researcher of Online Spaces? |
|
|
65 | (18) |
|
|
65 | (1) |
|
Aspects of Researching Online Meaning Making |
|
|
65 | (16) |
|
Being a Qualitative Researcher of Online Spaces |
|
|
68 | (4) |
|
Positioning the Researcher as a Research Tool |
|
|
72 | (2) |
|
Researcher Positioning in Online Settings |
|
|
74 | (3) |
|
|
77 | (1) |
|
Designing Research Questions |
|
|
78 | (3) |
|
|
81 | (1) |
|
|
81 | (2) |
|
Chapter Five What Methodological Tools Are Available for Data Collection? |
|
|
83 | (28) |
|
|
83 | (1) |
|
Establishing Trustworthiness |
|
|
84 | (4) |
|
|
86 | (1) |
|
|
87 | (1) |
|
|
87 | (1) |
|
|
87 | (1) |
|
Trustworthiness and Analytic Openness |
|
|
88 | (1) |
|
|
88 | (20) |
|
|
90 | (1) |
|
|
91 | (5) |
|
|
96 | (4) |
|
|
100 | (4) |
|
|
104 | (4) |
|
|
108 | (1) |
|
|
108 | (3) |
|
Chapter Six What Analytical Approaches Are Available for Data Analysis? |
|
|
111 | (28) |
|
|
111 | (1) |
|
Moving From Data Collection to Analysis |
|
|
111 | (2) |
|
Considering Data Analysis in Networked Field Sites |
|
|
113 | (21) |
|
|
114 | (2) |
|
|
116 | (7) |
|
|
123 | (5) |
|
Multimodal Analysis and Artifactual Analysis |
|
|
128 | (6) |
|
|
134 | (3) |
|
|
137 | (1) |
|
|
137 | (2) |
|
Chapter Seven What Is Ethical Research? |
|
|
139 | (18) |
|
|
139 | (1) |
|
Research Ethics and Policies Across Multiple Contexts |
|
|
139 | (3) |
|
The Public Versus the Private Web |
|
|
142 | (3) |
|
Review Boards and Research Approval |
|
|
145 | (8) |
|
|
146 | (1) |
|
|
147 | (2) |
|
|
149 | (3) |
|
|
152 | (1) |
|
Copyright, Terms of Service, End-User License Agreements, Creative Commons, and Fair Use |
|
|
153 | (1) |
|
|
154 | (1) |
|
|
155 | (2) |
|
Chapter Eight How Might Research Change in New Times? |
|
|
157 | (13) |
|
|
157 | (1) |
|
The Complicated Nature of Studying Learning in Online Spaces |
|
|
157 | (2) |
|
(Re)Imagining Research Techniques |
|
|
159 | (2) |
|
Shifting Cultures, Shifting Boundaries |
|
|
161 | (7) |
|
|
168 | (1) |
|
|
169 | (1) |
Glossary |
|
170 | (5) |
References |
|
175 | (24) |
Index |
|
199 | |
Hannah R. Gerber is an associate professor in the Department of Language, Literacy and Special Populations at Sam Houston State University in Texas, where she teaches graduate courses in digital epistemologies and virtual ethnography. To date, Gerbers research has focused on adolescents and their videogaming practices, examining confluences of learning across various literacies in multiple online and offline settings. She has conducted research in diverse environments such as homes, libraries, and schools, and within inner city, rural, and international contexts such as North America, Middle East, and South East Asia. She has given lectures and keynote addresses on her research at conferences and universities around the world. Gerbers recent publications can be found in English Journal, Educational Media International, and The ALAN Review. She is co-editor of Bridging Literacies with Videogames.
Sandra Schamroth Abrams is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at St. Johns University in New York. Her research of digital literacies and videogaming provides insight into agentive learning, layered meaning making, and pedagogical discovery located at the intersection of online and offline experiences. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Education, Journal of Literacy Research, and Educational Media International. She is author of Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6-12 Classrooms: A Layered Literacies Approach to Multimodal Meaning Making (Routledge) and co-editor of Bridging Literacies with Videogames.
Jen Scott Curwood is a senior lecturer in English education and media studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her research focuses on literacy, technology, and teacher professional development, and her current work investigates young adults writing practices in online spaces and teachers integration of digital tools in content area classrooms. Curwoods recent scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Literacy Research, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Teaching Education, and Learning, Media, and Technology.
Alecia Marie Magnifico is a teacher educator and a learning scientist whose research focuses on writing, digital literacies, and learning in formal and informal environments. Currently, she is an assistant professor of English teaching at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches courses on English teaching, digital literacies, and research methods. Magnificos research interests focus on understanding, supporting, and encouraging adolescents writing for different audiences. Much of her writing in this area describes and theorizes composition across formal and informal contexts, although she also works with teachers to design curricula and assessments that engage digital tools and multiple literacies. She enjoys the challenge of developing research methods to represent what happens in these complex, social learning spaces. Magnificos recent work can be found in Literacy, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and E-Learning and Digital Media.