Pre-post theme 6

For the first part of this theme I chose a paper from the journal Computers and Educations (impact factor ~2.5) the articles title is Effectiveness of a Mobile Plant Learning System in a science curriculum in Taiwanese elementary education. (Huang, Lin, & Cheng, 2010) The article is investigating the efficiency of a Mobile Plant Learning System used in a botany course. When the students were out in the field they could get information about plants in their PDAs. In the study they are using both quantitative and qualitative methods. They are used questionnaires with Likert scales to measure the quantitative data and interviews to get more diversified opinions about their experiences of using the PDAs. I think the combined usage of both quantitative and qualitative methods is a good way to conduct a study like this. Because it will be able to investigate many aspects. Especially I think the qualitative part of the study can enrich the quantitative data with deeper understandings of why they got a certain results. They can also help you to not miss crucial parts on the subject that you might have missed in the research phase. This can then be used when constructing theory. However an approach with only qualitative data will show the opinions and feelings of only the participants without showing an overall picture. In the study I read they got quantitative data that only a third of the participants claimed that they enjoyed using the PDAs while 75% said that the interface was straight forward. Without qualitative data we can only speculate in why this distinctive difference occurred, but with it they could easily see that it was basically due to technical problems. 

I think the study seems to have used a good methodologic approach to the problem however I actually would have liked them to present more qualitative data and analyze it a bit more. They kind of only says that they have conducted interviews not how they were structured etcetera. I think many studies tend to be too focused on quantitative measurements when it in this field qualitative measures are of big importance. 

The next part in the preparation for this theme was to choose a paper that is using case study research. Case study is when you try to understand the dynamics present in a certain setting. I have chosen an article from Computers and Educations. The title is Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers (Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013) and it is about the concept of multitasking on a laptop during a lecture. The study shows that participant who multitasked scored significantly lower than the one who didn’t but also that participants who were in the direct view of peers that multitasked scored lower than the ones that didn’t had a direct view. 

If we tries to use Eisenhardt (1989) description of how to construct theory from case studies. I will not cover all aspects he presents but the ones I believe is most interesting to this article. Firstly I think the authors have a good research question and indeed an interesting topic. They are investigating it in an environment where it is valid, with different data collection methods. They are both observing during the lectures, grading notes and get data from small comprehension quizzes. The quizzes were designed to address both simple and more complex question, which related to previous research about the impact of multitasking is greater on complex content. One thing they made which is really good is that they when they noticed during the first experiment that participants that didn’t multitasked were looking at other ones that did. They investigated this further in a separate experiment. This is something that Eisenhardt points out is important (flexible and opportunistic data collection methods) to take advantage of emergent themes and unique case features. In the chosen article they have made many references to other research articles that has investigated similar topics. They state that they have used a more structured method than previous research but the conclusions are similar. I think that one weakness of their structured method is that they have predefined multitasking tasks that they should complete. I could think that when you have a list of tasks to complete during the lecture you put more focus into them than you should have if you should have multitasked as regularly. I also think that the fact that they were” forced” to multitask might have influenced when during the lecture they did it. Normally they might do it when they think that the lecture was ”boring” and now they might have done it even if they felt the lecture interesting or even entertaining. In this way the conducted experiment might not represent the multitasking as it is during a real lecture.

When it comes to the measurements of the affects if peers are multitasking I think the method is better when the participants who was of interest weren’t forced to do anything. However the tasks handed out might affect the distractions caused. 

Sources

Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). theme 6 Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550. http://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1989.4308385

Huang, Y.-M., Lin, Y.-T., & Cheng, S.-C. (2010). theme 6 Effectiveness of a Mobile Plant Learning System in a science curriculum in Taiwanese elementary education. Computers & Education, 54(1), 47–58. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.07.006

Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2013). theme 6 Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers and Education, 62, 24–31. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003

Links to comments on theme 3

• http://duckyduckyducky.blogspot.se/2015/09/post-seminar-3_28.html?showComment=1444038854340#c8970938015712382064
• http://remarkableathenianyouth.blogspot.se/2015/09/post-research-and-theory-or-what-maketh.html?showComment=1444039535571#c3313236032048708032
• http://alexisdm2572.blogspot.se/2015/09/theme-3-post-seminar.html?showComment=1444040045001#c8408593049637104951
• http://rickardsdm2572.blogspot.se/2015/09/theme-3-post-seminar-reflections.html?showComment=1444040545546
• http://mawnzblog.blogspot.se/2015/09/reflections-post-theme-3.html?showComment=1444041036786#c7992912720575222640

Post blog theme 4

Quantitative research

During this week we have discussed mainly quantitative research methods, but also compared it to qualitative methods. I think these concepts are important to have grasped to be able to do research in our field of study. And especially how we can use them and what kind of data we get from it. Before the theme I read both an own article who used quantitative methods and the compulsory article about embodiment in VR. Even if both articles used quantitative methods they differed quite much. Before going into discuss the different methods we need to know what quantitative research is. Quantitative research is when we gather data in form of measurements, as an example temperatures, data traffic etcetera. The gathered data is then analyzed with statistics methods.

Often when we conduct an experiment or data gathering of some kind we have a complex situation with several variables (both dependent and independent) so we need to measure a lot of things and combine them in the analyzing to try to reach a conclusion. Often we need to try to limit the number of variables to be able to analyze it. This could be done through an attempt to conduct the experiment in a more controlled situation. I think this was exemplified in a good way in the article about embodiment in VR where they conducted the experiment in a controlled VR where conditions was the same for every participant as an example characters and basic rhythm. Their experiment resulted in data both from movement data, frequency analysis and data from the questionnaires. Which combined lead to their conclusion. They combined the measurements of the actual test together with the experienced level of embodiment. 

In the other study I read investigating if there exist a connection between UGC involvement and political engagement among Swedish adolescents aged 13-17 years they only used a questionnaire as a the method to gather their data. They did this because it is most appropriate for what they tried to answer. However we see that different methods even within quantitative methods gather different kinds of data even if they all is analyzed with statistics.

In conclusion I find it important to choice and design the methods used to gather data. Both to be sure that we get data that answers the what we tries to answer but also to ensure that we do not affect the results through posing leading questions or only measuring the single aspect that we think is important when other measurements could be needed to analyze the problem. We should also consider the character of the question posed and if usage of qualitative or quantitative methods should be used, or a mix of them. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have benefits and limitations. Quantitative methods is hard to use when it comes to investigate questions of why due to the fact that the possible answers are infinite. However we can use quantitative methods to answer a why question but it is possible not the best way to do it. However using quantitative methods gathers data that can be analyzed with statistics which can handle big amounts of data. Sometimes it might even be difficult to find variables to measure to get an answer of the question posed and then we might be forced to move away from the original question in lack of a method.

Pre-blog post theme 5

Preparation for the lecture on Wednesday (Design reasearch Haibo Li)

In the research articles to read before this lecture they made an attempt to evaluate their prototype. Something that can be hard to do with media technology I would argue that it is mainly because we need to time to learn the devices etc. However they point out that coding schemes were most important. I think this was because the small amount of training the participants had. However it is important to evaluate media technoligies in different perspectives like usability and sustainability. In the area of usability I think the approach made in the article with effectivness (does it communicate the information in an understandable way?), efficency (How much effort is required?) and finally Satisfaction (comfort and acceptability) represent a good way of measuring the usability of a prototype or final solution.

When it comes to evaluate media technology in view of sustainability I think LCAs (Life cycle assesments) is a good way to both be more critic in the production regarding both enviromental and social impacts of the whole life of ICT. 

Prototypes is a way we can experiment with new ideas. They can also be used to measure behaviours in the field. I think prototypes is important in research when they offer us new solutions that could improve some aspect of our field. Even if not all prototypes are successfull they will contribute with knowledge to the field with hypotheises that didn’t work and explanations (theory) why it didn’t work that can be used in future research.

A proof of concept is a prototype that demostrates its feasabillity. In other words it actually show that the concepts or ideas work. The neccesity of these prototypes is to bridge the gap between research and actual technologies on the market. If it is shown that an idea can be feasible it will be more secure to invest money into development. 

Even if prototypes serves a good purpose they are not final solutions. What character prototypes is that they often are limited to a specific task and a situation. The prototypes are often designed to work within specific conditions. This is limitations to a prototype but it also benefits because it makes it possible to test the solutions before they are fully implemented. This gives us the opportunity to refine parts and also to get honest opinions of it from participants in the test, which often is harder to get when you showcast a finished product. (Preece, Sharp, & Rogers, 2015)

 

I think it is important to communicate this kind of research, called design reaserch, in both the academic and corporation spheres, basiclly everyone that could have and intrest in implementing the ideas and concepts into a usefull application. However to only present them in the form of research papers might not be the best way. I personally would prefer to get it in a more concise form as articles in a magazine or as articles on a webpage.

Preparation for Lecture on Friday

The articles that I read before this lecture, where the design is the key ingredient, consist of empirical data in a special way. They argue for how we can do things and what challenges we face when trying to design certain forms of interaction. In the first paper (Fernaeus & Tholander, 2006) I would say that the empirical data is mainly about how participants interacted with their system. In the other article about a visualzation of current distance range of electric cars (Lundström, 2014) the main empirical data is that it would be of value to consider different speeds and climate controlls settings when driving an electric car, because they affect the driving range and also the optimal speed to reach it. Their approach with a graph that shows the range at different speeds is intresting and I belive that a visual approach like that is a great solution.

I think both of this articles shows that practical design should be considered as something that contributes to knowledge because they show how we can use our current knowledge in the creation of a new solutions. Even if they might not be the final solutions they showcast a possible solution that can be refined, through as an example an iterative design process.

You could pose the question if you can replicate these design processes in other settings (historical etc). That is probably hard or even impossible, however when it comes to designing and interactions our perception of it is changing almost constantly due to that the culture is changing.
I think that design driven research is an intresting field that is dependent on current tools availible. During the last decade we have seen a big increase in IoT and sensors in our everyday life, who have made measurements an gathering of data possible to a degree we didn’t had before. Something that we can use when desiging in new exciting contexts.