6. Issues of e-Research
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s e-Social Science programme set up between 2010 and 2012 for established and new researchers to discuss the use of new digital research methods and their associated methodological impact.
A number of issues raised at that original workshop are developed through contributions to this special issue. First is using digital tools for research in educational contexts. This includes both software, whether dedicated data collection apps that run on Smartphones and tablet computers or more generic tools, such as Facebook and other social media websites, originally set up for a different purpose, and hardware, whether handheld or desktop. Educational contexts range from the formal such as online discussion tools associated with a college virtual learning environment to the informal, such as discussion in a ‘chat room’ or comments on a ‘blog’. As web content continues to evolve and grow, opportunities for the use of digital tools have snowballed in recent years. In their early primer on E-Research: Methods, Strategies, and Issues, Anderson and Kanuka (2002) suggested that this was the likely result of four drivers: volume, of both activity and applications; velocity, the speed of change with emphasis on speed and throughput; variety, which refers to forms of communication, and interaction and value, which is directly related to quality. This issue of value raises questions of for whom, and for what, and leads to a deeper consideration of the second issue raised at the workshop: What are the benefits of online and digital tools for data collection and analysis and are there associated challenges?
Benefits outlined by Markausite and Reimer (2014) centre on the multitude of ways in which questions as to how people learn and particularly how they learn with technologies can now be explored both inside and outside formal learning environments using a range of digital tools. These tools encompass activities such as measuring brain activity, emotional responses and eye movement, advanced video-recording techniques, educational data mining, social network analysis and a range of other datarich exploration, modelling and visualization techniques. Markausite and Reimer (2014) conclude that this leads to an increased range of possibilities to get deeper insight into learning phenomena and the complex relationships between them. At the same time, we need also to be mindful of challenges in their use such as the need to learn new, often complicated tools that rely on, occasionally erratic, Internet connectivity and how this increased depth of insight can impact on the relationships between researchers and participants when using online tools and digital technologies.
This potential impact on the researcher and the researched was our third issue and is brought to the fore in projects that involve crossing boundaries such as those between home and school, work and social life, or informal and formal learning contexts. This is a feature of educational research via digital ethnography or in the
evaluation of mobile learning opportunities where collecting data via the technology may influence the nature of the research and the researcher –participant relationship.
The fourth issue from the original workshop to be developed further in this special issue of the International Journal of Research & Method in Education, the roles of social media, connectedness and digital research, has led to significant challenges related to changes in the creation, co-production and dissemination of knowledge.
Easier access to knowledge, the everyday use of highly portable mobile devices to access networked environments and the blurring of boundaries between private and public spheres, as well as between knowledge producer and knowledge consumer, have all resulted in opportunities and challenges that require careful consideration, reflection and elaboration vis-a`-vis existing practices. This brings us to the fifth issue, the challenge to existing approaches to research ethics, for informed consent, anonymization and confidentiality require redefinition in the new social, political and cultural spaces involved in e-research.
One final issue that was intended to be raised at the original workshop, how is openness in the context of digital research understood and enacted in education, did not stimulate any contributions either to the workshop or to this special issue. Nor did we receive any submissions linked to big data and its associated new field of learning analytics. This leaves us concerned that there are unanswered questions and a real need to explore the pros, cons and ethical considerations of using technology ‘behind the scenes’ in schools or colleges to collect, analyse and store large data-sets.