[quoting Tripp, 23 Oct 96.b] Interesting questions, all. And all would make good thesis material. Provided someone like Steve Tripp is brave enough to question the establishment position in the first place!!!
[quoting Rieber, 23 Oct 96] It seems that nowadays if you dare to add up a list of numbers and divide to get an average you are considered "evil." Yes, it's politically correct nowadays to poke fun at quantitative researchers (along with white males and husbands--gee, I'm all three!!)...
My goodness, Steve and Lloyd, what is the basis this persecution complex that you two seem to share? Empirical research using experimental methods and quantitative analysis is still the name of the game among most academic researchers. I hear faculty telling students "Don't even think about doing a qualitative study if you want to graduate any time soon." Graduate students in our Ph.D. programs must complete 15 quarter hours of quantitative research methods and statistics to meet the research requirements of the Graduate School. Courses in alternative research methodologies are optional in most programs. The journals in our field continue to be filled with studies employing traditional methodologies because the reviewers of these publications are steeped in these same methodologies.
Steve, you asked me what I would propose as an alternative to the type of media research you have presented. In my humble opinion, the foremost criteria for establishing a research agenda in the field of educational technology should be "social responsibility." Socially responsible research addresses problems that detract from the quality of life for individuals and groups in society, especially those problems related to learning and human development. Over the course of my career, most of my own research has been driven by developmental or action goals. A research agenda with development goals is focused on the creation and improvement of innovative approaches to enhancing human communication, learning, and performance through the integration of technology, theory, and imagination. A research agenda with action goals is focused on evaluating a particular program, product, or method, usually in an applied setting, for the purpose of describing it, improving it, or estimating its effectiveness and worth. Action research often directly serves the needs of clients in education and training.
I have found developmental and action research to be personally fulfilling, and in the final analysis, I believe my research agenda has had more positive impact on real needs than I would have had if I had devoted my energies to theoretical or empirical goals. This is not to say that my research agenda has not been shaped by the theoretical, empirical, and interpretivist work of other researchers in fields such as cognitive psychology, but precious little if any of this influence has come from the media researchers in our field.
How do you get started with a developmental or action research agenda? First and foremost, you must identify the needs in your environment. Spend a great deal of time in other colleges, K-12 schools, and/or business and industrial training centers. Frankly, in an applied field such as ours, I think faculty members and graduate students should spend at least two days a week in the field. After spending time with them, you will perceive the real problems faced by practitioners. Make their challenges your challenges.
Second, collaborate with other educators and trainers in preparing research and development proposals to find the resources needed to tackle these challenges. Once you obtain the necessary resources, engage yourself and your students in these R & D projects, and carry out your research activities within the context of meeting these challenges. You can even extend your teaching into these projects by engaging students in assignments that are situated within them. (My colleague, Mike Orey, does this all the time.)
Third, write something every day, whether it is a memo to yourself about a new idea, an e-mail message detailing your progress to a colleague, or an outline for a scholarly paper. Back-up everything electronically and set yourself specific goals for writing scholarly publications for periodicals and other outlets. Given that the editorial and review boards of many refereed journals remain mired in traditional paradigms, look for opportunities to publish your work in practitioner-oriented magazines, electronic journals, and edited books.
Fourth, carefully document your scholarship and obtain frequent assessments of its value from the clients with whom you work. Although tenure and promotion committees may still count the number of refereed journal articles you have, I believe that a well-documented portfolio of scholarly work that is also socially responsible will not be ignored. Architects, artists, and others in academe have developed alternative criteria for judging scholarship in their fields, and it is time for educational technologists to do likewise.