Comments...

Unfortunately, I misplaced some comments and couldn't remember the blogs on which I had posted them on. Here are the questions and comments that I have managed to recover so far.

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Joel: 

I thought you had a very interesting paper on mobile payments and the problems faced so far. I come from Kenya and at the moment, there's a very successful mobile payment system in use and perhaps the most successful so far in the world. The paper "Are mobile payments ready to cash in?" highlights pertinent problems that are facing the successful implementation of mobile payment systems across the rest of the world. Similar problems are also highlighted in other papers that study the mobile payment system in Kenya [MPESA]: mainly slow service and security and fraud challenges.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120920-making-mobile-money-pay

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/04/the-invisible-bank-how-kenya-has-beaten-the-world-in-mobile-money/

Those are just two links that describe this system in a little more detail and thought they could be interesting reads in relation to your paper.

Nicole:

Hej Nicole, you mention that marketing is usually a significant part of the budget. I'm just wondering, are there any key indicators discussed to show what percentage of the budget is dedicated specifically to online marketing and advertising using social media? Furthermore, in the study carried out in the paper, is there any mention of the film industry still making use of principles adhered to in traditional advertising and marketing?
I'm curious to know, just like Marina: what social media tools did the film industry utilize in the marketing campaigns?

Marina

You say that many politicians are active internet users before elections and soon after the election period is over, they forget all about being online. What do you think is the reason for this phenomenon? And is it something that was studied in your research paper?

Katerina

Katerina, which mode of learning, in your opinion would be most effective in this age: online learning or face to face learning? If you're to have a mixture of both, which of the two do you think should take a bigger percentage of the learning time?

Bart [reply]

Hello Bart. I do agree that the research methods to be employed in a study are totally dependent on the researcher...and I believe, the type of study that is being conducted. Perhaps, I wasn't clear about it, but I'm not insisting that researcher use mixed methods every time they intend to carry out a study. My only claim was that using mixed methods in research gives the study better grounding: a better understanding and broader perspective of the study.

Joel [reply]

I agree that forgetting what one wrote is a disadvantage. It may not be full-proof but I would suggest that events be recorded as and when they happen to avoid forgetting things.

Katerina

You mentioned that you can now tell which theory is a good and which is bad. I'm just curious to know, as far as research is concerned, are there any really good or bad theories? I would want to think that a theory is neither good nor bad until it is placed or used in a particular context. What do you think?

Johann

The paper on Automatic Speech Recognition in Cocktail party situations sounds very interesting. However, I wonder how this system would work considering that most cocktails have large numbers of people, all of whom are talking almost at the same time in different places of the room. I would be interested to find out more about this study. If you can, please send me a link to the paper. Thanks.

Reflections: Design Research

The process of design research was interesting for me. I have a background in Business IT and as part of my final year project, I was required to write a proposal for a computer based application  that is supposed to solve a particular problem that I identify with, and I had to build what would be termed as a prototype and present this workable solution to that solution. While that was at a much smaller scale, there wasn't too much emphasis on the technicalities of carrying out the research as was with the paper we read by Haibo Li et al. It was however interesting to go back and rethink my previous project and study it in more depth with this new knowledge that I have.

From my own personal experience, I can say that prototyping is a very long and tedious process and sometimes frustrating especially if your predicted end-product is not forthcoming. All the other advantages and limitations mentioned in my previous post also hold.

The lecture with Haibo Li was very interesting. He talked about defining and solving problems as well as ideas. It was interesting to note that everything begins with an idea. This idea is then developed into something great or small...depending on the person with the idea and its purpose. Ideas form the basis for prototypes.

As a parting shot, I will remember something that Haibo mentioned in his presentation, "If a problem is well defined [spend 90% of time defining], you spend less time solving it [spend 10% of time].

Design Research and Prototyping

Design research is a concept of research that was developed to look into the process of design, developing from work in design methods. This concept has further been expanded to include research embedded within the process of design, including work in the context of designing and research based design practise.

Prototypes built in the process of carrying out a research play a very important role. They allow for the stakeholders of the research to better understand the concept of their subject and to evaluate their hypotheses and propositions for solutions. Once a prototype has been developed based on the initial idea of the research. Thereafter, the prototype to some extent dictates the direction of the research.

In research concepts that are somewhat technical and require some sort of visible and workable prototype to verify hypotheses, prototypes play a very important role. They serve to show the basic workings of the research idea. 

From all the explanations above, the definition of a prototype, based on Wikipedia can be summarized as, "A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is designed to test and trial a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one."

The development of prototypes has both positive and negative effects on the research and the concept of the product and company developing it. Some advantages are that prototyping provides a proof of concept which comes in very handy especially when soliciting funding. It allows the developers early visibility of the final product, enables higher output, increases system development. Also important is that it helps in the identification of problems with the efficacy of the system and therefore allows a quality product to be delivered. It also allows for user interaction in throughout the design process hence getting consumer feedback which further improves the product.

Some drawbacks of prototyping is that over a long period of time, the consumer may lose interest in the product. As a result of the many changes done to the prototype in the design process, a lot of damage to the structure of the product. Also, development process may be slow as a result of the large number of end-users to satisfy. Prototyping also doesn't work very well for large applications.

In the research paper, Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration, by Haibo Li et al, they investigate how vibration in a mobile phone can be used to render live football information. They have the idea of turning the mobile phone to a football being played in the real field, such that every time an action is taken on the ball, e.g. kicking, the phone vibrates. For this to take place, the mobile phone has to be synchronized with the ball in the field. In their study, they discover that most people watching a football match want to know the main highlights of the game as it is going on: these are such as, when the ball is about to be hit towards the goal post, the team player who has the ball.

Design research can be presented in such a way that it attracts, inspires, creates desires and motivates the people to respond to the research, with a view to making a favorable impact to the bottom line, which can be either to build a brand or move sales. Its process involves strategic business thinking, using market research, creativity, and problem-solving.

Reflections: Qualitative Research Methods

This week proved to be rather interesting. For starters, I did learn that a diary can be used to collect data for research purposes. I haven't had any experience with research before [as I have with this course], but I would say it was good to learn this new method. Something that I would have very much liked to see in my paper, was a sample of the structure of the diary that they used to carry out their study.

After the seminar and some reading, I developed somewhat of an interest in Semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs, images, gestures, physical objects, acts, sounds.

Overall, I learnt that it is possible for a researcher to carry out a purely qualitative research using the various methods such as diaries [as mentioned in my previous post], interviews, observation, content analysis. However, I believe that these methods have to supplement each other therefore giving a bigger picture and a better understanding of the study.

Diaries in Data Collection

Qualitative research, traditionally used in social sciences and market research investigates the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of decision making. It attempts to carry out an in-depth study in order to understand human behaviour and the reasons for that behaviour. It makes use of smaller but focused samples to collect its data.

This type of research collects a lot of evidence which the researcher analyzes. There are several methods one can use to collect data, such as interviews, focus groups, group discussions, observation, reflections. One of the main advantages of using this research method is that it gives the participant the opportunity to respond in their own words. It also allows the researcher some flexibility to probe the participant further based on their initial responses: they are able to ask ‘why’ and ‘how’.

In the research paper, College Students Social Networking experiences on Facebook, the researchers study how much, why and how young adults use social networking sites. It found that on average, students spend at least 30 minutes observing content and creating and disseminating content. The students also use Facebook to express their identity and would only use it to communicate with friends whom they have a pre-established relationship offline.

The paper applies the use of qualitative research very well. One of the main methods that they employed was a diary to collect the data. The respondents [students] were asked to fill in a diary every day for 7 days. In the diary, they were asked to fill in the total amount of time that they spent on Facebook, check off specific activities that they did while on social networking sites. The diary also had some open-ended questions about social networking sites: why the students used the social networking sites and how they used them. When the 7-day diary research period was over, the students were then given 24 hours to complete a follow-up survey with some open-ended questions.

Further reading led me to a paper that gives an in-depth understanding into using diaries as a data collection method. Diary methods involve intensive, repeated self-reports that express events, reflections, moods, pains or interactions near the time that they occur. This method, like all other qualitative research methods is systematic and highly structured. It produces findings not determined in advance.

Researchers have to decide on a diary design before they begin their research. With changes in technology, diaries can now log additional information about the location of the respondent and integrate that data with physiological measures.There are three most commonly used formats of diaries: paper and pencil, brief telephone interviews and electronic based e.g. Internet-based diary, handheld computers and/or mobile phones. In the investigation into students experiences of Facebook use, they employed both electronic and paper and pencil diary formats.

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Research design is research undertaken to support the strategic design and development of products, services, programs. Its used to develop effective solutions. It’s purpose is to generate utility for the user by cumulatively gathering of human experiences. A lot of the data collection is done with the use of multimedia presentations.

The research paper, Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses, the investigators study the design of physical languages used for controlling and programming robotic consumer products. It explores basic research theories represented in the field of comics and fashion and how these two are used in the development of physical languages.

Reflections: Quantitative Research Methods

This week, had some very interesting articles to read. We were also very fortunate to meet one of the researchers of the papers that we read: Emotional presence, learning and the online learning environment written by Martha Cleveland-Innes.
Something I found particularly interesting is that quantitative methods of doing research can be used to quantify human behavioral patterns  in order to derive some valuable information.

When a researcher selects a method to carry out her research, he must be ready to reasonably justify their selection and must be certain of it. The conceptualization of the research method should be good.

A key element in carrying out research is sampling. Sampling can be defined as the process of selecting units, e.g. people, from a population of interest so as to study that sample and derive results that can be fairly generalized about the population as a whole. The process of carrying out sampling is very critical and a lot of attention should be put into it. Random sample give the best results, but most often prove to be difficult especially in educational institutions. This is because respondent in the sample are free to refuse to take part in the research, and thus a researcher will be unable to carry out a pure experimental design.

After research has been carried out, there are research data analysis tools that are used to analyze the information gathered by the researcher. This analysis of all the responses in a research study are studied and conclusions deduced from it. One such tool of analyzing data is SPSS [Statistical Package for the Social Sciences], which we learned about and had the chance to use and do a basic analysis of the statistics provided to us. 

Once all the data of a research has been coded into SPSS, there are different functions that one can select so as to analyze the data: different variables can be compared to others. Also, one can separate the data e.g. according to gender and analyze the responses of the different genders separately.

SPSS is an important tool for researchers and especially in the field of media where the industry relies heavily on statistics of the content produced and the stakeholders in the entire process of production to viewing.  Although we covered some basic concepts in the lecture, I am keen to increase my knowledge about this tool and how to use it.

Mixed Research Methods....

The first paper, Mixed Research and Online learning, talks about qualitative and quantitative research and how those two research methods can be brought together to form what they are calling a third paradigm: that of pragmatism where both research methods are combined.

Most purists: strictly quantitative or qualitative researchers argue that their methods are the best and that the two cannot be blended, saying that, “paradigms and research methodologies cannot be separated or mixed”.

There are both advantages and limitations to adopting mixed research methods. One of the greatest advantages is that it helps understanding of research problems much better than either quantitative or qualitative methods would on their own. It facilitates the richness of data. The limitations to this methods, is that applying it can be a very complicated and time consuming process. One requires to examine the objectives and hypothesis of the research separately for the two different methods because their application would be different.

In the paper, thirteen steps were outlined to give researchers guidelines on how to carry out mixed research. These are:

1. determine the goal of the study

1. formulate the research objective 

1. determine the rationale behind mixing methods in the research

1. determine the purpose of doing (3) above

1. work out the research question

1. select the sample design 

1. select the mixed research design

1. collect the data

1. analyze the data 

1. validate the data

1. interpret the data

1. write the report for the mixed research carried out

1. reformulate the research questions.

Of the steps mentioned above, a lot of attention ought to be given to formulating the research design, the questions and determining the rationale behind the research being carried out.

In the second paper, Emotional presence, learning and the online learning environment, the authors highlight that emotion plays a key role in learning. They say it shapes student engagement in learning. In this paper, both quantitative and qualitative methods of research were used to gather and analyze data [mixed research methods]. It was noted that while it is very difficult to measure emotion, there were similar emotional responses exhibited by the respondents which were common to certain learning environments. While emotion may inhibit learning, if it is managed well, it can be a support for thinking, stimulation and decision-making. Emotions are part of a human being and form part of their everyday experiences and how they act or react towards them. This study therefore makes sense when it suggests that emotion ought to be considered as a prevalent and influential part of learning, if not a central part of it.

Reflections: Theory

There are many ways to define theory. I now know that theories seek answers to the questions: “why”, “when”, “where”, “how”... and not just “why” which I had previously referred to in last post. It was also good to know that most theories that are studied are theories of explanation and prediction. It’s uncommon to find papers that explore theory of analyzing.

It was interesting to note that I actually did learn a theory last week from the paper that I had selected. The first research paper that I selected used the the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. With the knowledge that I learnt this week about types of theory, I can now classify this theory as a theory of explanation and prediction. This theory tries to understand why people are likely to adopt and use a particular information technology tool.

I also learnt a new and interesting theory from my group discussion members: The Theory of Transmedia Narratives. This theory, based on Vladimir Propp’s Narratology, analyzes the meaning and application of various narrative structures as used in different types of media. This led me to go on and read about Narratology: the study of narrative and narrative structures and the ways that these two affect our perception.

P.S. My apologies for posting this late... I've been lagging behind in the past weeks. I'm now working towards making sure that all my postings are on time. I also hope to comment on many more blogs in the coming week.

Theory or Not Theory

I must admit that it is a tad confusing to explain what theory is, which is why I will begin by describing what theory is not because it’s a little easier to understand. Robert Sutton and Barry Stow in their paper, “What theory is Not”, single out five keys areas, which are constituents of research papers which fall prey of being confused as theory or tend to replace theory, its development or explanation.

References or citations, which are favourites of researches to include in papers in abundance are not theory. They don’t show the relationship between what is cited and the theory that the reference is based on. Another misconception is that data is theory. Data is good for proving a theory, disproving an already existing theory or creating a completely new theory. The difference between data and theory is that data seeks to explain which empirical patterns are observed, while theory seeks to explain why those patterns are observed. List of variables are also not theory. They only give expectations of results. Diagrams, although very useful in clearly outline the flow of logic from one component or idea to another about a theory, they still do not explain the logic behind the theory and can therefore not be used on their own. Finally, hypotheses, which can be described as concise statements of what is expected to occur, are not theory, for the simple reason that they do not explain the why those results are expected to occur.

From the description above, one can therefore deduce that theory seeks to answer the question “WHY”. It generates associations between occurrences; explaining why acts, events and thoughts take place. The emphasis of theories lies in expounding the causal relationships between phenomena, but only within certain bounds.

In informations systems, there are five main types of theory. Theory for 1) Analyzing, 2)Explaining, 3) Predicting, 4) Explaining and Predicting, 5) Design and Action. Within those four theories, are the main components of each: means of representation, constructs, statements of  relations and scope.

Analysis simply states what the theory is. The what, where, how, when and where of the theory ought to be covered in the explanation. Predictions observe the theory in the current state and attempt to foresee what it will result in the future. Prescription gives instructions of how to apply the theory.

The research paper, “Everything is plentiful - Except attention” by Kortelainen & Katvala, studied the types of social media tools that are used by scientific and scholarly journals websites, the kind of attention data that can be found and its focus and the topics in the postings of different social media tools about the scientific or scholarly journals.

The paper proposed a theory: Social media tools as a source of attention data. Attention data in this paper is informally defined as liking, commenting on, sharing, linking, following articles on Facebook, blogs, Twitter. After adequate research was carried out, it is found that the liking or commenting on a paper or journal may increase its visibility or use. Blogs, were found to contribute to professional and scientific knowledge. The author concludes that although attention data is difficult to measure, scientific journals in partnership with their users, create on social media fascinating information resources that is[are] relevant, authoritative but nevertheless also entertaining.

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It is observed that most researchers, are either good theorist or empiricists, but never both. Most writers, feign from develop the theories that they state in their papers and instead compensate with the five components discussed earlier which are not theories. A good balance is therefore required when forming research groups so as to ensure that both skills are included in order to come up with a good research study. Most important, as observed by Sutton & Staw, is that more knowledge is required about how to write better theory and more energy devoted to explaining and elaborating it in research papers.

Reflections: Theory of Knowledge

So this past week has been very interesting. I learnt that when looking for journals, one must consider the impact factor. An impact factor of 1.0 and above indicates that the quality of the papers in the journal is good. Another way to find good papers is by checking the reference lists of good journals and research papers because, a well written paper, will always have a good reference list.

The Lecture...

Knowledge and theory of knowledge were defined by studying various texts, primarily that of Bertrand Russell. The theory of coherency, a theory discussed during the lecture, didn’t make sense at first but with a little more reading and explanations, I came to understand it.  This theory attempts to make the most sense out of a collection of inherent data that one has. A lot of assumptions are made in the process of making sense of the data and finding a solution to the current problem presented. There is never really a certain result of what is to happen in the future, because the present data cannot really be based on past experiences, because the knowledge as to those experiences is lacking. A good example to show coherency theory in action is the current state of climate changes, its effects and how the problem is being tackled. The scientists cannot really predict a certain future, because they lack the full knowledge of past experiences. They therefore have to make assumptions in order to come up with a result.