Tools for digital researchers

I have just started to explore this resource but it seems to me a good starting point for whom would like to upgrade his/her own instruments of investigation. It could be interesting to review some of these tools for researching as well as tools for teaching.

Antonella Esposito
3:20pm 31 October 2009

Hi Antonello this is a brilliant topic for a cloud! I think increasingly it is important for researchers to be aware of the variety of ways in which technology can support their research. There are a number of aspects to this:

• Tools for data collection and analysis
• Tools for communicating with other researchers
• Tools for disseminating research findings

Gráinne Conole
3:20pm 31 October 2009

The Practice-based Research in Educational Technology H809 course on our Masters in Open and Distance Education is all abut helping researchers explore how technologies are being used in an educational context. An alternative title we played with for the course was 'researching wih and about technologies'. The course is designed around core readings from the field and the intention is that students on the course experience the technologies as well. Researching in today's context is much more than just publishing journal articles. It's increasingly also about being visible and active in different digital spaces - such as the blogosphere, twitter and of course cloudworks ;-) I think researchers who don't embrace this are missing very important channels for communicating their work and engaging with others in current research topics and challenges.

Gráinne Conole
3:27pm 31 October 2009

Great links and ideas. I think there is also space for connecting digital scholarship with open educational resources. Graine, It would be a good idea perhaps to explore this further in our Exeter workshop?

Giota Alevizou
4:55pm 31 October 2009

Thanks for this Antonella. I like your idea of reviewing these tools - could be a good H809 activity for the next presentation. We're doing the updates right now!

James Aczel
5:32pm 31 October 2009

Giota - interesting idea to connect digital scholarship (incl. digital research tools) with OER. Especially as plans are afoot to (a) put H809 in OpenLearn and (b) create a completely open version of H809...

More details on this as soon as I get time for a blogpost!

James Aczel
5:34pm 31 October 2009

@Giota - yep great idea, lets explore more in the Exeter meeting

@James - sounds good, would love to talk to you more about how we might more actively use cloudworks now that we have a site that looks and feels good and now that we have a vibrant international community discussing and sharing things in here - we have people fro over 130 countries participating now!

Gráinne Conole
6:45pm 31 October 2009

James - super idea. Like Grainne said, it would be interesting to explore the link betweeen research and scholarship and embed it to representations and discussions about teaching and learning in both OER contexts and generally. I feel it may be a great incentive for teachers who are keen to promote research-led teaching.

Giota Alevizou
12:52pm 1 November 2009

Yep totally agree Giota and it aligns well with what we are trying to do with OLnet in terms of bringing researchers and users of OER together more and to provide mechanisms for them to share and discuss around OER.

Gráinne Conole
1:07pm 1 November 2009

As a student enrolled in H809 in 2009 edition, I think that the "formula"of the course succeeds on providing learners with a small (even too short, I miss it) but significant simulation of a  research experience from inside. Thanks to this course, a student can undertake a perspective of reflection about what "new research methods" really means and influence research practice.

However, I believe that collaboration among participants could be also increased by engaging them in activities to be developped outside H809, in a social, specialized arena. For instance, I found it valuable the wiki activity related to learning theories'' entries, but what could it become if developped as a public wiki, such as Digital Research Tools? Outside the comfort zone of a course's VLE there is more responsibility, more competition

Back to Cloudworks, while participating in Cloudworks in these months I thought how much interesting it could be for a research student in educational technology to join and/or start discussions and activities in this social network as an integral part of his/her program. I see Cloudworks as a natural add-on and extension of courses such as H809.

...to be continued

(I think that an individual creates a cloud, he/she is somewhat responsible for its maintenance and supervision. So, I will attempt to follow and contribute in time to this one and other current clouds, but at the moment I'm travelling in Laos and I can't assure continuity until 8th november)

Antonella Esposito
4:38pm 1 November 2009

Hi Antonella - I totally agree with you! I think cloudworks could be a real added bonus for students on course like H809. It's up to James as the chair though, but I will certainly talk to him about it! Cloudworks wasn't really ready a year a go but now I think it has the right look, feel and funtionality and a nice mix of international dialogue (people from over 130 countries!) so it could really enrich the experience of students on Ed Tech courses.

Gráinne Conole
8:49pm 1 November 2009