FINAL COMMENTS ON DIGITAL TOOLS

Overall, I found the course to be informative with respect to exposing me to the multitude of digital tools available, especially as they may enhance my qualitative and historical research. The specific tools I found to be most useful considering my respective interests are Online Data tools including: National Digital Library Program which is assembling collections of primary resources that specifically support the culture and history of the U.S. and citeulike which I conceive as providing access to a digital scholarly community with respect to my specific interests. Furthermore, this Blogger account, in and of itself, is indeed useful, as I have finally figured out the difference between publishing a post vs. creating a blog! Considering my research interests are deeply involved in historiography, I found RefWorks to be an invaluable tool also however I think it will become more useful after I finish my dissertation and begin to compile new bibliographic reference materials, rather than the one's I am simply cuttin and pasting presently from saved documents. I personally didn't find any use for surveys, concept maps, collaborative writing tools or wikis, but that does not suggest they aren't useful to others. As for expressribe which I had previous experience using, and transana, I think these tools provide a more efficient manner in which to view and transcribe qualitative research! Finally the WEFT QDA seems to be a very useful tool that enables an efficient method by which coding and memoing can occur. In general, I found this course to be quite informative with respect to providing exposure to the tools. However, I contend it really involves quite a bit of time to realize all the features and benefits of each tool- at least for me! I therefore can't really speak against any of the tools we were introduced to. Good Class!

CAQDAS: HyperResearch

CAQDAS: HyperResearch

Considering I may be doing some ethnographic work in the near future, I decided to look into HyperResearch 2.6 which seems to be an effective research analysis tool that enables the researcher to integrate and simutaneously work with texts, graphics, audio and video sources. The features that seem to be most useful to me would be its multimedia capabilities along with its "comprehensive" coding and retrieval features. Unlike Atlas Ti 50, it allows you to maximize the video window while coding. At the student discount rate, it runs $200 rather than $370 but can be bundled wit HyperTranScribe for $239. You can download a free limited addition that is "fully functional" and its seems that you can obtain free upgrades if you decide to purchase it.

REFWORKS

Refworks

For research in general, REFWORKS is a very efficient bibliographic manager that will ultimately same time for the researcher. Once all your bibliography data is imported, complete reference material is conveniently accessible in which REFWORKS even does the formating for you with respect to your style of choice - APA/Chicago. However, in order to really become proficient and realize all its benefits, you need to devote some time and energy into going through all the tutorials and 'experimenting with it' a bit. This time factor is further compounded due to the fact that you have to look up all the references and import them into REFWORKS if you want to use them. In other words, you have to build your 'library'. Although importing this data into REFWORKS is done efficiently, you still have to devote time and energy into looking each reference up through OSU libraries, JSTOR, etc. In short, this bibliographic manager is ideal for someone who is just beginning their graduate work. But for someone who may be in their last stages of graduate work and has all of their references on saved documents, the time investment involved in looking up and storing references may not be worth it, when one can cut and paste reference material from other saved documents. Lastly, like all digital tools, REFWORKS is convenient, but I contend there is value in researchers knowing how to do things for themselves (like formatting APA or Chicago style), rather than allowing, or depending on technology (which may not always be accessible/available) to do it for you.

We Are Limited Only By the Parameters of Our Intellect

It is my contention that the establishment of critical consciousness is necessary for the expansion of one's self and world view (ethos). As one engages in this educational process which inevitably involves the production of knowledge, one enters into a realm of perpetual self growth and awareness. It is my hope that we may embark on this journey together, through which life becomes more and more meaningful.