Spaces to Think - The Independent Study Blog

Oxford English Dictionary e-, comb. form

2006-11-21T11:32:00.000Z

Oxford English Dictionary e-, comb. form

Summer Update

2006-08-18T16:03:00.000Z

Both Neil and I have been away in various hot climes during the past few weeks but now ... we're planning for the start of term. Also pleased to see that some of you have been thinking ahead and checking the WebCT area for news.

The first session back is a workshop on writing effective proposals: Friday 22nd September. This will give you some input to begin filtering the ideas you've been having/reading during the summer and focus them into a proposal. We'll also look at issues of supervision and the choice of supervisor.

So, keep reading, thinking, and refining your ideas. If there are any that you want to share remember to use the discussion board on WebCT.

'Til soon

Designing Questionnaires

2006-08-08T12:19:00.000Z

Here's an interesting interview with with Michele Corrado from IPSOS MORI which was broadcast in BBC 4's Word of Mouth series.
You can find the interview at 13 minutes 12 seconds into the programme.

Word of Mouth 7 August 2006

Article on Research Diaries

2006-05-03T09:19:00.000Z

Here's the abstract of an article from the Research Training Initiative (RTI), a project based at UCE Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD), entitled Diaries and Fieldnotes in the Research Process

It is common to hear people talk about 'writing up' research. Implicit in the phrase is the sense that writing is a stage that occurs principally when the research has finished and is a straightforward process of telling what was done and what conclusions can be drawn. However, the process of research involves many forms of writing, from letter writing and minute taking to academic papers and formal research reports.

The aim of this issue is to consider one form of research writing that has received relatively little attention, yet which is central to the research process, especially, but not exclusively, for those conducting qualitative or action research studies - the research diary. Research diaries are considered as part of a broad category alongside other methods of recording such as research logs and fieldnotes. Particular approaches to notetaking, the use of visual material in diary record keeping, as well as practical issues are discussed.

Printing the blog

2006-04-24T14:20:00.000Z

I know some of you may be struggling to print your refelctive blog to include in the submission of the dissertation.
The problem is that the blog is defaulted to give the archive from present to past - so that when you print you get a story in reverse order. Better to start with the first blog sometime last year and the final blog .. the last couple of days when you say 'Yep, all done!!'
To do this you need to change a little code in the Blog template. It's simple. Here's an article that explains all:

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=882

And here's another interesting post from someone who has printed out a blog in book form.

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2005/10/archiving_coyot.html

Online Qualitative Data Analysis

2005-12-23T12:28:00.000Z

There is an extensive set of online resources for qualitative data analysis at
http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/index.php

Well worth a look.

J Drive Update

2005-12-01T15:52:00.000Z

The materials from the review workshop are now available on the J Drive.
Not much blogging of late because ... not much time! Hopefully things will settle down a little and I can post a little more. :)

J Drive Update

2005-11-18T15:53:00.000Z

The slides/handouts from the session on Data Collection/Generation are now available as .pdf files on the J Drive

The following websites are also a good place to follow up many of the issues we discussed in the workshop:

Qualitative Research Links

Forum - Qualitative Research. Free Journal Articles on Research Methods

Methodology Quiz

2005-11-14T13:55:00.000Z

If you have been obsessing about methodology after the workshop session you can test your knowledge online ... and learn more about the terminology used in discussing research methodologies.

Access the test here ...

Methodologies

2005-11-07T16:23:00.000Z

Methodologies,
originally uploaded by Clive's Photographs.

The materials from the Methodology workshop are now available on the J: Drive. What I have managed to do here though is to upload an image of the keywords slide which did generate some interesting discussion (click on the image to enlarge it).
Neil and I never claimed that these are the 'only' key words, simply those that we brainstormed from our own experience.
Perhaps you are coming across other words in the research literature which are becoming key for you. If so, send them to the blog as a comment and Neil and I will, in turn, comment on them.

Open Access Journals

2005-11-01T09:49:00.000Z

I have just discovered DOAJ, the Directory of Open Access Journals. These are peer reviewed journals which are published on the web and free to users. The Directory offers various search options and would be worth exploring for papers related to your own research projects.

Access DOAJ here ...

The Joining!

2005-10-27T10:13:00.000Z

Hi all,

I've just now joined the Blog with Clive and the rest of you. I'm looking forward to joining in on the debates, and hopefully, I can recruit some other bloggers from my supervisees to share in the creativity.

Using this Blog

2005-10-25T10:01:00.000Z

Like all bloggers I suppose its natural to wonder how many people are actually reading these posts. This is especially true for a blog that claims to serve a community - in this case the Level 3 students in Communication who are involved in their Independent Study Unit.
So, any feedback is useful. Use the comments to send your own replies to my posts or ask questions which I'll be happy to follow-up. In addition, I've added my own 'hit counter' to this page so you and I can see how many people are actually visiting.

J Drive Update

2005-10-24T13:10:00.000Z

The J Drive has now been updated with the handout from the workshop 'Reviewing the Literature'.

Literature Reviews - Website of interest

2005-10-24T11:35:00.000Z

The web is full of information on literature reveiws - if you Google the terms you will get over a million hit and even Google Scholar gives over 100,000.

One that I have found useful is provided by the University of Melbourne:

Conducting a Literature Review

Reflexivity

2005-10-24T10:04:00.000Z

One way in which you are encouraged to see your research project as a process is to maintain a research diary/log. Having now completed your proposals that log should chart an emerging focus and methodology. Of course, it won't be completely fixed and you will be making modifications to it as your projects develop.
Another way in which that diary/log should impact on your work is through what is called 'reflexivity'. This has become very much a 'catch-all' term, particularly in qualitative research, and because of this is difficult to define succinctly. I have just come across an article which does try to give a working definition which you may find helpful:

What is ‘reflexivity’? It is a particular epistemological orientation which has accompanied the post-structuralist inheritance. It poses a challenge to the possibility of objective scientific authority (and absolute truth) on the ground that it falsely presupposes the possibility to achieve an ontological separation between the observer and the observed world(s). Reflexivity can thus be defined as the fostering of an awareness of one’s own social–historical positioning vis-à-vis the research one is engaged in. Reflexivity entails an engagement with questions such as: (i) where do we come from and why do we do this research? (ii) what is the relevance of data histories and the contact with the researched worlds for our interpretations of data? (iii) how are researchers through their involvement in researched worlds implicated in power economies?

Slembrouck, S. (2005). "Discourse, critique and ethnography: Class-oriented coding in accounts of child protection." Language Sciences 27(6): 619.
Online Access: doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2005.07.002

You should now be thinking/writing on some of the questions posed by Slembrouck in your research logs.

Using the Literature

2005-10-24T09:55:00.000Z

In the Independent Study Workshop on literature reviews I mentioned an article which uses a number of analogies to discuss the nature and purpose of literature reviews in academic research.

The article is:
Massey, A. (1996) Using the Literature: 3 x 4 Analogies The Qualitative Report 2/4

It is available online here ...

Busy Times

2005-10-11T09:10:00.000Z

Not much blogging from me of late. This is due in part to the start of term - getting timetables/units sorted out, the dreaded cold virus that hit the family, and the fact that I'm moving house!!

There are some interesting projects emerging from discussions over supervision and proposals though. Here's a brief list of the emerging projects that I have agreed to supervise. Check them out if you think there's some commonality with what you are doing.

- Mike Powell is looking into the nature of curatorship and the production of culture.
- Mathew Booth's interested in the ways online chat rooms are impacting on language.
- Gemma Pedley is investigating the construction of British identity through costume drama.
- Yin Ngo Tu is trying to understand the role of religious identity in inter-faith marriages.
- Gemma Mann is looking at multiculturalism and the nature of integration possibly in its expression in university contexts.
- Rebecca Gibson wants to understand how music can create identity through community music projects in Manchester.
- Alexa Price wants to evaluate the effectiveness of communication skills training in the nursing profession.
- Rebbeca Rogers is looking at the ways in which the body is used in product endorsements in magazines.

Some of the above have already started blogs to chart progress and the some of the others will do so in the near future.

Materials on the J: Drive

2005-09-26T13:23:00.000Z

We now have a part of the shared student J: drive available for us to make available workshop materials. It's a useful resource because if you do miss a session you can download and copy the materials at a later date. It also means that if we forget to make (enough) copies the resource is always available for you. On the shared J: Drive there is a directory 'BA(Hons)Communication' in which there is a sub directory 'Level 3' inside of which there is another sub directory called 'Independent Study Resources'.

There is a handout which explains how to access the drive when you are not on campus. Multiple copies are available on the table under the noticeboard.

Blogging and Visual Ethnography

2005-09-21T09:26:00.000Z

3,
originally uploaded by MMU Spaces to Think.

This is a photo taken by Eric as part of the Level 1 Induction Course. I've used it here to illustrate how Flickr, a free photo host, could be used to log photos and link them to an Independent Study Research Blog. This would be a useful tool for anyone doing visual research with photographs. You can archive photos with comments to give a visual record of your research as it happens. Connecting with a research Blog means that your Research Diary builds seemlessly as the year, and your research, progresses.
Visit www.flickr.com for more information.

Still lost after all these months ...?

2005-09-15T14:24:00.000Z

I suspect that a number of you haven't yet established a working title for your Independent Study although you have (!) done some reading.
Here's an excellent page put together by Sue Drew at Sheffield Hallam which might just help you to focus.

Final Year Dissertations or Projects: What to Consider

Searching SOSIG

2005-09-15T14:09:00.000Z

The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) is a freely available Internet service which aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality Internet information for students, academics, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences You can use the search engine below to check out how it works for some of the ideas you are developing:

Supervisor/Student Relationships

2005-09-13T11:18:00.000Z

Here's an article which looks into the nature of the postgraduate student/supervisor relationship. It may be about postgraduate students but there is a lot of sense in here which is useful to reflect on as you enter into a relationship with a tutor for your undergraduate Independent Study Unit.

Meeting of Minds

Research Notes

2005-09-08T10:36:00.000Z

Over the summer - as you know if you've been reading this blog - I've been looking into how web logs could be used for the Independent Study Research Diary. Although the content and function of that diary will be explored in workshops over the coming weeks, I've just come across an article by Alexander Massey on the use of fieldnotes/research diary in qualitative research.

Making notes of one's observations and working processes is a sine qua non of research. For the student, learning this discipline can be seen as part of the initiation into becoming a professional researcher (Jackson, 1995:70). Yet while there is an insistence within the academic community to make detailed notes, it is not easy to find advice on what this might mean. There is an air of mystery about what fieldnotes should look like, how they could be organised, and how one might use them.

He goes on to explain the format, content and function of his own research log. It's a short, accessible article which will be a useful supplement to the material you'll receive at the beginning of term.

Read the full article here ...

How to Write about the Social Sciences

2005-09-06T12:56:00.000Z

I've just been looking at Cubu, L. & Cocking, J. (1997) 'How to Write about the Social Sciences'. It's a sensible reminder of the importance of the writing process in the production of effective undergraduate dissertations. It's short (150 pages) ... and sweet, giving solid advice with instructive illustration of the points the authors make.
Well worth a read as you begin the Independent Study Unit.

Mike's Research Blog

2005-08-22T15:06:00.000Z

Mike Powell has been recording some thoughts and initial research ideas on the nature of the museum/gallery experience trying to, at one and the same time, open a space for research and limit that space around something 'researchable'.

It is an interesting journey and one which I know all of you will be travelling during the Independent Study Unit. Mike is sharing it through his Blog which I think is useful, both for him and us. I've made a link to it on this page for easy access.

Ying's Thoughts on Study Project

2005-07-14T10:27:00.000Z

Ying is thinking about the nature of intercultural marriage and the ways in which belief systems are 'worked out'. She's just at the reading around stage but if anybody has some information for her send a message to this blog which she reads regularly.

Research References

2005-07-04T09:52:00.000Z

This is an intial reading list which I gave to students interested in working with me on their Independent Study projects. Not every work will be relevant to you but it gives you a taster of the kinds of things I read.

Agar, M. (1996). The Professional Stranger. London, Academic Press.
Brown, A. and P. Dowling (1998). Experience and Observation: The Collection of First Hand Data. Doing Research/Reading Research. London, Falmer: 49-58.
Denzin, K. and Y. S. Lincoln (1994). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA., Sage.
Denzin, N. K. and Y. S. Lincoln (1998). Introduction: Entering the Field of Qualitative Research. Strategies of Qualitative Enquiry. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. London, Sage: 1-35.
Fetterman, D. M. (1998). Ethnography: Step by Step. London, Sage.
Fielding, N. (1993). Qualitative Interviewing. Researching Social Life. London, Sage: 135-146.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York, Basic Books.
Gray, A. (2003). Research practice for cultural studies: ethnographic methods and lived cultures. London, Sage.
Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson (1995). Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London, Routledge.
Hart, C. (2001). Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences. London, Sage.
Harvey, L. (1990). Critical Social Research. London, Allen and Unwin.
Kerlins. (2004). "Qualitative Research Bibliography." Retrieved December, 2004, from http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/qualresearch/bibliography/index.html.
Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage.
Meloy, J. (2001). Writing the Qualitative Dissertation: Understanding by Doing (eBook). Mahwah, NJ., Lawrence Erlbaum.
Peshkin, A. (1988). "In Search of Subjectivity - One's Own." Educational Researcher 17(7): 17-22.
Pink, S. (2001). Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research. London, Sage.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. London, Sage.
Taylor, S., Ed. (2001). Ethnographic Research: A Reader. London, Sage.
Tedlock, B. (2000). Ethnography and Ethnographic Representation. The Handbook of Qualitative Research. N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. London, Sage: 455-486.
Trochim, W. (2004). "Knowledge Base: An online textbook." Retrieved December, 2004, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/contents.htm.
Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the Field, On Writing Ethnography. London, University of Chicago Press.
Van Maanen, J. (1993). Representation in Ethnography. London, Sage.

Blogs in Teaching and Learning

2005-06-28T14:14:00.000Z

This is something I've been playing around with in the last couple of weeks. It's the idea of harnessing the ease of self-publishing on the web through 'blogs' as a way of creating a community of learners. This particular blog is designed for students on the Level 3 Independent Study Unit. I could use it to keep them informed of references/tools/ideas and it becomes an archived resource bank. The students create their own blogs to develop their research journals and archive any references/links that they find. Those blogs are all linked together to create a community. When a particular blog in the community is updated we all find out about it.

I certainly think there is potential here. If you are interested and think it could be used, the best way to begin is to play - create your own blog (use the link above) and/or reply to any of my posts.

So, narcissistic self-publishing or empowering pedagogy ....?

Online Tutorials

2005-06-27T10:54:00.000Z

As a follow-up to the generic skills training for the Independent Study Unit run by Neil and myself you could usefully look at some online tutorials created by Huddersfield University's INFORM project. There are tutorials on Research Strategy, Search Engines, Directories, and Evaluating and Referencing sources. Have had a quick look but it would be useful if someone could post some detailed feedback on one or more of the tutorials.
[Note: for these tutorials make sure that the pop-up blocker in the tools menu of Microsoft Internet Explorer is turned off]
The tutorials are available at:

http://161.112.232.42/perl/portfolio.pl?folio=1

Endnote 8

2005-06-27T10:45:00.000Z

As part of the Independent Study generic skills training that Neil and I started in May I ran a session on using this Endnote. For those of you who didn't attend EndNote is a bibliographic referencing software management package that lets you build a library of references and then uses them to create in-text citations and bibliographies automatically.
MMU library have just written an online tutorial which gives a useful step-by-step run through of how it works. It takes about 45 mins to complete - and it's well worth the effort.
You can find it at:

http://inhale.hud.ac.uk/perl/jump.pl?28-1608