. New way of doing Rsearch
Some educational researchers have been employing not only new research instruments and techniques, but also exploring new ways to do research, indeed, new ways to be a researcher and be a scholar (eg, see Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes, 2009). For example, over the recent years, we saw a growth of large-scale research projects that explore the potential and possibilities of collaborative research, such as the sharing of educational datasets in “datashops,” hosting research communities and innovation networks in virtual research environments, and collaboratively annotating video observations using online video analysis tools. The emergence of some blended methodological fields—such as virtual ethnography, learning analytics and educational informatics—further evidences the potential of digital technologies to open new areas of educational inquiry and make a critical contribution researching and improving e-learning (eg, see Markauskaite, Fitzgerald, Herrington & Wallace, 2011).
Markauskaite and Reimann (2014) point out that this expansion of research tools means not only employing new research instruments and techniques but also exploring new ways to do research and, indeed, new ways to be a researcher.