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!