This is my first blog post for week one of Research Methods. Apart from the blogging I had to carry out for IDEL I have never blogged, so hopefully I get it right!  I am not sure what I want to research, but taking part in edx has given me a few ideas to work from.  Although I have taken part in the group blog with Antonia, Dirk, Eli, Rachelle and Ross I decided to try out a blog myself so I could learn how to set up a blog and gain some individual experience at blogging.  I have tried to answer the question as best I can.
·        What kind of topics are you interested in researching?
I would like to focus my research on some of the groups that are involved with a project I work with for male offenders, but I am not sure if this is suitable.
·        What initial research questions might be starting to emerge for you?
Q1 Idea: Does education in general or education with a digital input help to reduce recidivism rates in male offenders?
Q 2 Idea: Can the use of technology assist when educating male offenders with high recidivism rates?
Q 3 Idea: When communities are biased towards people with offending and drug use backgrounds. Can technology assist in changing their views and attitude’s?
·        What are you interested in researching - people, groups, communities, documents, images, organisations?
Answer: People, groups and communities
·        Do you have an initial ideas for the kinds of methods that might help you to gather useful knowledge in your area of interest?
Answer: I am still learning about research methods, so am not sure yet, but so far I think I will use qualitative research methods as I will be interviewing people, observing people and recording my findings.
·        What initial questions do you have about those methods? What don't you understand yet?
I am still reading up on this, so I will leave any questions I have until a later date.
      Do you perceive any potential challenges in your initial ideas: either practical challenges, such as gaining access to the area you want to research, or the time it might take to gather data; or conceptual challenges; such as how the method you are interested in can produce 'facts', 'truths', or 'valuable knowledge' in your chosen area?
It might be tricky to interview the people I wish to gather information from. I will have to get permission from probation services.



Comments

  1. James 17 March 2018 at 12:07

    Hello Denise, I didn’t this piece when you first posted however I’m glad to have come across it now. You research very helpfully reminds us the learning through online and digital education covers a broad range of contexts. Each of your research questions sound really interesting: are you thinking perhaps of following this line of inquiry within your Masters dissertation?

    'It might be tricky to interview the people I wish to gather information from. I will have to get permission from probation services.’

    Can you think of any ways that it would be possible to gain the permission of probation services? Is there a way that you could demonstrate that the research would be valuable to them? And what gaining the cooperation of participants themselves?

    ReplyDelete

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