This Week's
Hot Topic

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) II

Not this old topic again?!  Oh yes firefighters you have only scratched the surface of earning those fire marshal badges, but this week will get you deep in the world of firefighting  at this firehouse with multiple opportunities for troubleshooting, but with great rewards of satisfaction for rising to the challenge.

This week we continue our hot topic of CMC with everyone actually getting down and dirty and setting up your computer system for synchronous CMC opportunities.  If you did not note this from the drill schedule, notice that two of them are 3- and 4-alarm drills -challenging to say the least but certainly not un-extinguishable by any means.

I am fully confident that everyone will be successful in these drills, but I do recognize that they will test many of your firefighting skills. As an overview (you can read the specifics in the drills below), this week you will be given 2 groups of synchronous CMC tools.  From each group, you will select at least one to set up and use on your system.  This means that at a minimum you will use 2 CMC tools (1 from each group).  You are required to complete at least one of these this week but are given an additional week for the second one in case you need it to get to a live (synchronous) event.  Many of you will be able to complete them both this week which is what I would try to do if I were you.  It is extremely important that you get to these things EARLY this week because you are going to need to schedule to be at live events and you cannot get the tools set up and participate at the last minute on Tuesday afternoon.  In addition, after your participation you will post a reflection of your experience to a threaded discussion sharing what you learned, etc.  so , again, you will need to get to these activities early this week.

Before you begin I would like to post a few suggestions in the forms of DOs and DON'Ts this week:

• DO read through the information I have provided for the particular tool you are working on BEFORE attempting anything and then go through it again step-by-step
• DO check to make sure the program you choose is compatible with your operating system
• DO read help files, FAQs, within the programs or on the web sites
• DO use your partner/team members or others in the firehouse that may have already used a tool or figured out the same problem you are having
• DO Explore
• If you want to use a microphone, camera, or speakers, DO get them working before you attempt to do any of these tasks.
• DO ask for help once you have read all information provided along with help sites
• DO NOT wait until the last minute
• DO set some time aside early in the week to work on getting one or more of the tools set up – the one you choose may not work well for you so you may end up choosing another one
• DO buy a microphone and quick cam if you can afford it (or borrow one from a friend)!
• DO NOT get "download happy" and start downloading everything at once you will freeze your computer if you overload it
• DO work on one program at a time
• DO download files and save them to your desktop
• DO Restart your computer after installing new software if it does not seem to work properly

I am sure there are others but this is what I have thought of so far. 

My final disclaimer this week is that I am giving you lots of information on how to set up things to work on your computer for different tools.  I do not pretend to be perfect nor am I.  I am sure there will be errors somewhere although I have tried my best to be as accurate as possible.  I have not set these up on a computer exactly like yours but on computers that I have available to me - which include many of your operating systems - so that is all I can go on.  There are multiple helps, FAQs, and supports for the different tools you are using so please use them.  If you find an error or the directions do not work well for your system then let me know but don't be shocked. I can only provide so much - some of the skills you are building this week are personal troubleshooting skills. However, do not suffer in silence - ask for help.

Enjoy your week!

Identifying Empirical Research on IT Topics

Now that you have decided on your research topic you will begin to identify and analyze empirical, refereed research articles on your topic.  As a precursor to this requirement, your 1-alarm drill this week should provide you with the knowledge and capability to begin identifying and analyzing empirical, refereed research.

Empirical research could be explained as a systematic intentional inquiry involving collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. The data collected may be qualitative or quantitative. Some examples of empirical research would be:

• a true experiment in which hypotheses are proposed, variables are manipulated, data is collected and analyzed, and the results are interpreted in light of theory
• research in which observations are made, recorded, and analyzed within a specified context, experiences are recorded, and reflections and interpretations are made.
• research in which a case is examined and analyzed, and explorations of relationships between cases and theories are conducted

Empirical research is not someone's "opinion" about what works or a story about how they did something. Empirical research should be based on theory but is not the sole description of a theory.

In addition to the requirement of empirical research, the articles you use should also come from refereed journals. A refereed journal is a journal in which the articles that appear were first evaluated by a panel of acknowledged experts to assure that they merit publication. The referee process (sometimes called blind review or peer review) assists journal editors in identifying quality research and research that contributes significantly to knowledge within a field. It assists you, the reader, by filtering out research that is heavily flawed in one way or another, research that is poorly written, research that does not necessarily add to our understanding of a topic. To identify whether or not a journal is refereed you can look at their submission process. This process is usually described somewhere within the journal itself and/or on their web site. If you are unsure about whether a journal is refereed you can contact me, but please investigate it on your own first. Please note that about 99% or more of what is on the web is not refereed. Therefore, articles posted to a personal web site (empirical or not) will not meet the requirement of empirical, refereed research articles. There are a few online journals that are refereed and that contain empirical research and these are acceptable, but please remember that you must have evidence that it is refereed. Some online magazines and journals you should avoid are THE Journal and ERIC documents with ED numbers.  Students often send me articles from these sources and they rarely meet the refereed and empirical requirements given the nature of the source.

Most any refereed empirical research article published in your field of study can be recognized by the components that your text suggests as steps in the research process.  Put simply, empirical research is a kind of research in which the investigator poses a question to answer and seeks to answer it by gathering and analyzing data. The data need not be numerical, nor need it be directly observed by the investigator.  They must only be products of observation.  Thus, an ethnographer who makes a written claim about some practice of a native tribe is an empirical researcher, though the claim is expressed in words.  Similarly, a physicist who measures properties of a subatomic particle he or she has never seen, and then makes a claim about that particle expressed numerically, is doing empirical research.  The important thing is that both claims can be rendered false by further research, and both claims were supported through collecting and analyzing data using accepted methodologies. The method by which they collected their data may be very different but similarities exist across the board that can help you identify empirical research.  These similarities include (1) a research problem or question, (2) a review of existing research literature on the problem or question, (3) research questions or hypotheses, (4) a research design that guides the collection and analysis of the data, (5) methods related to identifying/selecting subjects, materials and instruments to be used, and other procedures that are followed, and (6) final analysis and interpretation of the data collected and a report of the results and discussion of how the research question(s) can be answered given the data collected and analyzed. These are the key components you should be searching for when attempting to find empirical research on a topic of interest to you so you should make sure you have a good grasp on these components.

Once you find an empirical,refereed research article related to an identified research problem, the next question you need to ask yourself is  - how well was this research conducted and is it worthy of being included in a literature review of a particular research topic you may choose?  Will it assist me in better defining and directing my own research? The requirement that your article is in a refereed journal helps you in this aspect because at least you know that other scholars in the field have deemed it good enough for publication (although you may be surprised at what gets published once you analyze it carefully). However, you will still need to read it carefully to insure it fits well with your topic. Once you decide it fits with your topic, your initial job is to analyze the article and note the components required for your summary of research table.  Analysis of an empirical article involves more than just summarizing the contents in your own words (something everyone is usually guilty of when they first begin writing "research" papers).  Instead, it involves making a critical judgment of the quality of the research conducted and the value and application of the findings. As you read the article you will need to think critically about how well the article addresses the components mentioned above. As you do this there are some guiding questions you can ask yourself as well as jot down notes for later inclusion in your conclusion. These guiding questions are:

Research problem/question:

• Is the problem an important/relevant one to your field of study?
• Will this study contribute to our understanding of the problem?
• Do they provide a good rationale for why such a study is important?

Literature review:

• Does the literature review provide definitions of the key constructs they are investigating?
• Do the authors critically evaluate the studies they review?
• Does the literature provide support that this study is needed?

Research questions/hypotheses:

• Are the questions/hypotheses clearly stated?
• Will the answer(s) to the question(s) be applicable to practice in the field?
• Will the answer(s) to the question(s) help us understand the problem better?

Research Design and Methods (components 4 and 5 combined):

• Is the sample (subjects) they used appropriate for answering the questions?
• Can you generalize findings to a larger population? Will you be able to apply their findings to similar settings?
• Were the instruments or measures they used clearly identified/explained?
• Do the authors convey clearly the procedures used for collecting and analyzing the data?

Results and Discussion:

• Are the analysis techniques they used (whether quantitative or qualitative) clearly explained?
• Do the findings they report seem plausible given the data they analyzed? Do they make sense?
• Do the conclusions they make follow logically from the data analysis findings?
• Do the conclusions they make match the questions they posed at the beginning of the article?
• Do the authors report limitations to their study?
• Do the authors provide important implications for practice?
• Do the authors make suggestions for future research in this topic?

These components and their guiding questions will be the areas on which you will concentrate when first reading empirical research articles.  You will want to summarize for yourself each of the components as stated in your article as well as provide a critical judgment of how well they communicated and conducted their research using the guiding questions.

If you are still unsure about whether or not you are able to identify empirical research I think a good litmus test is whether or not you can answer the guiding questions (positively or negatively).  If there are no subjects then it is likely not empirical.  If there are no research questions/hypotheses, then it's empirical nature is questionable.  Do you see where I am going with this? If you are having an extremely difficult time identifying empirical research then my next question would be, are you only looking online?  If the answer is yes, then the solution is find a library to go to and search there.  While some may luck out, many will have to actually go beyond what is available on your desktop or laptop.  Sometimes this will be because of the topic you choose, but mostly it will be because of the still prevalent lack of research published on the web that is both empirical and refereed. The best practice to use is to use the UWF online library which will allow access to electronic versions of many research journals that cannot be found on the open web.

However, just because it meets both criteria does not mean it will be a great article (insightful, engaging, applicable, etc.), so you can imagine how bad it can get without meeting these criteria. While it would be wonderful if you found many superbly conducted and written research articles on the specific aspect of a problem you want to investigate further - this is not likely. If there were only great articles there would be no need for close analysis.

It is important to remember that it is likely that you will find articles that are pretty poor when considering the questions above. This does not mean you should discard it for your summary table in search of the "perfect" research article. If this is your goal you have a long road ahead because, as you will soon come to find, there is almost always something to criticize within a piece of research. Reading and analyzing research (good and bad) will assist you in becoming a better consumer of research and one who can identify the horrible, to the not so great, to the okay, to the pretty good research that is out there in your field.

Drill

For planning purposes, here is an overview of the steps in this research table project throughout the semester:

• Week 4: Identify Research Topic
• Week 5: Locate 2 Empirical Research Articles on Topic
• Week 6: Locate Final 3 Empirical Articles on Topic
• Weeks 7 - 11: Work on Summary Table for Each Article
• Week 11: Create Web Page of Research Table and FTP

This week you need to identify at least 2 empirical articles on your topic. Send an email to me with the complete reference and abstract (if available) of at least 2. You will need to identify the final 3 of your 5 articles next week.

Some possible places to begin your search are:

• The UWF Library has a variety of databases that are available for students. Some of the resources have online full-text articles that you can use. Read about the services available for Distance Learners. You may also find it helpful to review the library's tutorials related to research:
  • Library Tutorials:
    • Selecting the Best Database (in presentation format or PDF format [297 KB])
    • Database Searching Strategies (in presentation format or PDF format [689 KB])
    • Searching for Articles in Education Full Text Databases (in presentation format or PDF format [914 KB])
  • Library Databases
  • Online Journals
  • Accessing Information Off Campus
  • UWF ELi: Electronic Library Research Guides
• Educational Journal Links
• National FORUM Journals Online
• ERIC Database
• AERA journals
• Psychcrawler
• Psych Web
• Links to Psychological Journals
• Psychology Journals (and a plethora of other resource links!)

CMC on your Desktop

The CMC Tools in this Drill include:

• Net2Phone

• NetMeeting

• Skype
  
• iVisit

Using the information provided in the CMC Tools Set Up Document I have developed for you this week in Word or RTF format you will set up at least one (1) of these tools and complete the activities associated with it.  Read all information and decide which one to use and start setting it up.  If you have video capabilities I would strongly suggest you experience iVisit or NetMeeting.

Drill

Complete the activity that goes with your tool

Final Activity for Skype:

• CALL ME or someone in the class
• Post to the threaded discussion your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the call (who you talked to, how was it, etc.), and the value of this tool for synchronous CMC and for instructional purposes.

Final Activity for NetMeeting or iVisit:

• Participate in a NetMeeting or iVisit with me or a partner.  Email me to schedule a time or catch me online or IM when you are ready.
• Post to the threaded discussion your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the meeting, and how you think this tool rates for synchronous CMC capabilities and for instructional purposes.

Browser-based CMC

The CMC Tools in this Drill include:

• HorizonWimba

• InterWise

• WebEx

• Centra

Using the information provided in the CMC Tools Set Up Document I have developed for you this week in Word or RTF format you will set up at least one (1) of these tools and complete the activities associated with it.  Read all information and decide which one to use and start setting it up. 

Drill

Complete the activity that goes with your tool

Final Activity for HorizonWimba:

• Participate in a live event, a live demo, or a archived seminar

• Post to the threaded discussion your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the event (including what event you attended – the title- the topic – a summary of what you learned), and how you think this tool rates for instructional purposes and why.

Final Activity for Interwise:

• Experience a live or recorded event

• Post to the threaded discussion your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the event (including what event you attended – the title- the topic – a summary of what you learned), and the value of this tool for instructional purposes and why.

Final Activity for Webex:

• Hold a WebEx Meeting or attend a free webex event.

• Post to the threaded discussion your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the event (including who was in your meeting, what tools you used, how they worked, etc.), and how you think this tool rates for instructional purposes and why

Final Activity for Centra:

• Experience a live event or hold an eMeeting

• Post to the threaded discussion  your experiences with setting up the tool (goods and bads), your experiences with the event (including what event you attended- the title, the topic, a summary of what you learned) OR with the meeting (who you met with, what tools your tried, how they worked, etc.), and how you think this tool rates for instructional purposes and why

• Check the FAQ Page to see if your question has already been answered.
• Email Chief Curda.
• Email EMT Kelly.
• Email the firehouse crew and see if another firefighter knows the answer.

Now let's take a look at the Chief's
Inspection List for this week!