Culture and Technology

When thinking about what’s new for me about e-research, I realized that I hadn’t previously thought enough about researchers with disabilities and their limited access to the internet or other tools. I had thought about poorer students (the digital divide) but not those who may have limited access due to a lack of technological accommodations.

I feel that e-research is helpful for me in using ERIC or other sources (wikipedia) in learning about new concepts quickly, particularly from fields related to but outside my own, and being able to visit journals and researchers’ websites. Most journals and publication guidelines have information on the web whether they are mainly print or web-base journals and this is extremely helpful for newer authors. At this stage in my career, I find being connected to online discussion groups valuable as well. However exciting e-research is, I remain concerned about students and professionals knowing to being with a sold research design (Theo’s problem) before moving to online tools. I also think, as an applied linguist, that we still benefit from face-to-face interactions with participants in terms of interpreting paralinguistic features such as facial expressions. Finally, as the authors mentioned, we should remain mindful of plagiarism –whether intentional or accidental.