Textual Laboratory

I am still in quest for finding the appropriate technological tool for my own research. Last week, I found a chance to explore some aspects of Nvivo, and this week I will be introduced to Atlas.ti. On one hand, learning technological tools for qualitative research requires time, effort and energy, however on the other hand through technological research tools researchers spend less time, energy and put less effort to finish their study.  CAQDAS tools facilitate the task of researchers helping them to organize their research process. Building upon (2008) ideas, Paulus et.al.  note that “ One of the most obvious benefits of using software is that can serve as the ‘ textual laboratory’ “ ( p. 121). I love this statement and am quite agree with them.

CAQDAS packages provide a site in which researchers are able to put all related research materials together including annotated articles, written notes, recordings, videos, conceptual map and so on. When we open the package, we find the research materials  in one place and can easily make connection among them. The other important issue CAQDAS offer is that researchers can easily follow their research process, so that they will keep them on track to finish the research project.  Therefore, I believe that it is worth spending time to learn CAQDAS packages.

The Coding process& theoretical framework

On Tuesday, we listened the presentation of Dr. Lochmiller about using Nvivo in the qualitative research. He introduced some features of the Nvivo, and provided examples how he used Nvivo during the coding process. In addition to Dr. Lochmiller, in the small group discussion, Rhonda shared her experiences and showed us how she codes the interview transcripts using Nvivo. Then, we discussed to what extent the theoretical framework influence the data analysis process, in particular coding.

In quantitative research, researchers are testing their hypothesis, in similar way in qualitative research researchers are testing the theory, and make statements about whether their current study support the selected theory. In this sense, theoretical framework has a great influence on the way we use for coding. For instance, in my own study, I initially coded the interview data based on the theoretical framework. In the second step, I created new codes regarding the new themes occurred in the study which were not part of the theory. In sum, the theories such as the identity construction theory provide an initial map including main coding categories for researchers to analyze their data.  Nvivo might help researchers to realize the place of main themes and subthemes in the transcript. In this way, researchers can easily apply codes to data including transcript from an interview or a video. Also both from Dr. Lochmiller and Rhonda’s experiences, I made a sense that Nvivo works really well if the research study is conducted by co-researchers.

Fidelity of Qualitative Data

Among the readings for this week, the arguments of Silver and Patasnick (2011) in relation to the fidelity of qualitative data draw my interest. The authors touch a very important at the same time very sensitive issue in qualitative research. Their discussions take me back to our first class meetings in which we discussed the importance of the reflection in the qualitative research. At that time, we came to agreement that reflection makes the qualitative research more transparent both for researchers and readers; consequently increases the trustworthiness of the study. In particular, reflection serves as means that making the qualitative study more perceptible and more visible for readers.

From Silver and Patasnick discussions, in particular from this statement “The relative lack of detailed documentation about analytic and technical procedures or critiques of software utility represents both an important gap in the literature and a failure to be transparent and reflexive” ( p.5) I have understood that researchers should keep their reflective stances when they use certain software programs. In relation to reflectivity, researchers who use CAQADAS first should gain awareness about their rationales why they use certain software programs and how they analyze the data using those programs. Also researchers should be knowledgeable about the features software programs and the dimensions of their data . In this way they can make sense whether digital tools they selected  are suitable to use for their own research. For instance, as Silver and Patasnick reveal, video is a multidimensional and complex data, so producing an analyzable data from that video requires more process and will be challenging. At this point, researchers should find the appropriate software programs and research approaches that allow them to analyze the data without losing the quality of original data.

a digital immigrant

Rather than Transana, I will bring a different issue to my blog today. On Tuesday, we had a guest speaker. Mr. Painter raised many important issues throughout his conversation. One of the important points that stood out for me is the discussion around being a digital “ native” or digital “ immigrant”.  His statements in relation to this discussion remind me that various factors including living condition, job occupation, research interest, and worldview might make people “ digital native” versus “ digital immigrant” individuals. For instance, the living condition in the US force people to integrate technology more in their lives.  Such as, people are able to do everything electronically including paying the bills, registering for the class, buying a ticket for a concert, ordering foods and so on.  Computers and electronic devices are available almost in everywhere.  On the other hand, in some countries, people are continuing their lives without electricity. One of my American friends went to Afghanistan three years ago, and she is currently working as an English teacher there. In her working area, there is no electricity; people are using gas to run their electronic devices including computers (very old version) and printers. She is able to use Internet when she comes to American Culture Center, which is located in a different city.  When we consider her case, she seems a digital immigrant even though she is a former digital native.  Based on the condition in the Afghanistan; it could be a dream for Afghans to be a digital native. So, I think, where you live is the biggest factor that influences people to what degree they integrate technology in their works. ( May be I am wrong, but I interpret in this way).

Introduction to Transana

In general, I am considering myself a late adopter of technology, however this semester is a kind of turning point in my life in terms of including more digital tools in my research practice. In my quest for learning CAQDAS, I have found chance to explore various qualitative data analysis software programs including digital tools for writing the literature review and generating data.  Now is the time to learn a new digital tool. This week I am going to be introduced with the Transana.

Based on my search at websites, Transana was first developed by Chris Fassnacht, and is now maintained by David K. Woods at the Wisconsin Center for education research. It is a software package that helps researchers to transcribe and analyze the video and audio data. I have not used any video as a data in my previous research studies, however audio data is always an important component of  them. 

Now, I am very curious about how Transana facilitate the process of managing and analyzing video and audio data. I will see and share my reflection when I start to working on Transana by upcoming Tuesday.

Just Feelings

The classroom discussion in this week was very great as usual. In the first part of the class, we discussed naturally occurred data& researcher generated data that made me very confused before. The examples Dr. Lester and other classmates had shared regarding the types of data assisted me to figure out the basic distinction among them. Even though there is no certain line between naturally occurred data and researcher generated data, they are grounded on different ontological and epistemological perspectives.

In the second part of the class, we went on to discuss in small groups.   Everybody in the group shared which digital tool they had used for the Skill builder activity. Hearing the name and functions of the digital tools used by my classmates triggered my interest to explore more digital tools in the qualitative research. I feel like a great number of digital tools are waiting to be discovered to help researchers in their works. I am very grateful for taking this technology class, it provides me assistance in my quest for becoming a  better, reflective researcher.