Updates

Welcome to MAS790

kbrennan — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:25:58 -0500

Our first meeting will be in the Cube conference room on Thursday, February 5 starting at 5:30.

After our first session

kbrennan — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:55:43 -0500

Thanks to everyone who attended our first session. I hope that you found the discussion as thought-provoking as I did - we'll have lots to discuss over the next few weeks! The slides that I showed are available here.

Reminders:

if you'd like to participate, add yourself to mas790@media (or email me at kbrennan@media if you have any questions)
post a comment mentioning which of the sessions (starting with Feb 12) you'd like to facilitate
check out the readings for Monday, which are available on the schedule page
respond to Monday's readings by posting your questions as you read (these don't need to be long or beautifully formed, just a way to share your in-progress reactions to what you are reading)

What is (qualitative) research?

kbrennan — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:04:35 -0500

As you are reading, what questions emerge? Record your questions here - tentative and partial thoughts are welcomed and encouraged.

After our second session

kbrennan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:46:01 -0500

Some follow-up notes from yesterday's session:

Yannick (and others) raised the issue of generalizability. Janet Ward Schofield has a chapter, entitled Increasing the generalizability of qualitative research, that I think addresses this issue thoughtfully. Most of the chapter is available through Google book search, and I'll work on making the whole chapter available to you as a PDF.
Ian requested some examples of qualitative research yesterday. Now that we're looking at particular approaches, there are examples embedded in the readings. (For example, the LeCompte reading in the next session provides examples of ethnographic work.) For more examples (and a response to Angela's question about how to succinctly represent qualitative work), I recommend skimming some qualitatively-oriented journals. Sage has a listing of all its journals by journal title - some of the journals I follow that include qualitative studies include New Media & Society, Convergence, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Educational Researcher.

Looking ahead:

Thursday's readings are available on the schedule page
Micah graciously volunteered to facilitate the next session, about ethnography. Please let me know what session you'd like to facilitate...
Please respond to Thursday's readings by posting your questions/comments as you read (these don't need to be long or beautifully formed, just a way to share your in-progress reactions to what you are reading)
I've added email addresses to the mas790@media mailing list. If you're reading this, but haven't received any messages from me (and would like to), please let me know.

Miscellaneous notes:

Someone from COUHES is coming to ML to talk about online research. If you're interested, come to the Cube conference room (E15-135) tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1pm.
ML is hosting a conference and proposals are due Friday. You should submit something!

What is ethnography?

kbrennan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:52:20 -0500

This session's readings are available here. Post your questions and comments below.

After our third session

kbrennan — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:22:48 -0500

I've changed the schedule a bit. Instead of case study, we're going to take the next two sessions to continue our conversation about ethnography. In Tuesday's session, we're going to examine several examples. On Thursday, we're going to use these examples to talk about validity/reliability/generalizability and issues of "goodness" for ethnographic work.

The readings for Tuesday (instead of Monday because of the holiday) are available at:

http://mas790.media.mit.edu/schedule#ethnography2

Please post your comments by Tuesday at 3pm. In particular, please note which two examples you chose to read (more information about that available on the class site, linked above).

After our fourth session

kbrennan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:52:55 -0500

We're continuing our discussion about ethnography on Thursday - digging into the issues of validity and reliability.

Please post your questions/comments/reactions to the readings by 3pm on Thursday.

The readings are available on the Schedule page.

After our fifth session

kbrennan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:16:35 -0500

Thank you for the engaging discussion on Thursday about validity and reliability. We'll be returning to these issues again in the context of participatory approaches.

We're now turning to action research traditions - and our upcoming session on Monday at 5:30pm is focused on developing an understanding of what action research is and how it's different from the approaches/examples we've already discussed.

Please post your questions/comments/reactions to the readings by 3pm on Monday.

The readings are available on the Schedule page.

After our sixth session

kbrennan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:13:27 -0500

Having started the conversation about action research tonight, we're going to continue on with action research next session, looking at concerns regarding validity with an example.

Please post your questions/comments/reactions to the readings by 3pm on Thursday.

If you are planning to write a paper (expected with for-credit participants), please email so we can set up a time to meet before the session next Monday.

The readings are available on the Schedule page.

After our seventh session

kbrennan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:44:37 -0500

Following our readings of ethnography and action research, we're looking at another approach: narrative inquiry. I've put the readings up on the Schedule page.

Please post your questions/comments/reactions to the readings by 3pm on Monday.

I've met with seven people who are planning to write/share something. If you are planning to write a paper (expected with for-credit participants), please email so we can set up a time to meet before the session on Monday.