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Adapting ethnographic action research to research online learning
1. Adapting ethnographic action
research to study responses to
educational technologies
Florence Dujardin
(Sheffield Hallam University)
LCSS 2013 PhD conference – April 2013
2. Overview
• Online learning context
• Initial research design
• Adapting a methodology from Development
studies
4. A digital immigrant?
(Prensky 2001)
Or... a potential digital
resident?
(White & LeCornu 2011)
Second-order digital divide
5. Initial research design
Action research
Reading
Social bookmarking
Reflection
Collective blogging
Feedback
Screencasting
Multiple case studies
6. Weakness
Context of culture
Context of
situation
Practice /
Media
Higher
Education
Tutor-
reader
student-
writer
home
community/ies
work
Adapted from Lillis (2001)
7. Key features of EAR
Social mapping
Socio-cultural
animation
Communicative
ecology
Context of culture
8. • Local practices situated in
the wider context of culture
• ‘entanglements’ of social
practice and technology
• Does new media challenge
anything?
Why borrow EAR?
Original design
• Focus on local practices /
media
• Technologically
deterministic?
• Difficult to discuss the
context of culture
• Emancipatory intention
hidden
Ethnographic action research
9. Conclusion
• A productive and flexible methodology for
researching educational technology issues
• Well adapted to look at technology use in
context, including in entirely online context
• Potential for connections with wider issues
(second-order digital divide, pedagogy, and
ICT use in HE)