4th Question in Small Group Discussion in January 28th: Can you create an
example of a technology tool (other than data analysis software) and how
it might afford particular uses for qualitative research?
In response to this question, I would like to share one of the tools which was not designed for qualitative research but I enjoyed using in coding my interview data and in presenting the results visually. Since we did not have time to talk about this question as a whole class, I thought it will be better to share it here, in this blog.
The name of the tool is Inspiration. It is mostly know as a concept map software because you can easily develop fancy and sophisticated concept maps. The tool has an important feature such that it has both outline and map view which are connected to each other. In other words, it allowed me to make an outline with lots of subtitles and to view the concept map or hierarchical map aligned with my outline.
I used outline view to list my categories, codes, sub-codes. Then I used the map/diagram view to see which codes are related with which categories. One of the useful functions is that I could connect two codes in the map view by making a connecting line between them and this new connection was automatically transferred to my list of codes in outline view.
Another feature I liked about this tool while using for qualitative research is that it allowed me to hide subcodes in map view, so that I had both a general picture of my results and a detailed visual representation of my results.
It has also kid's version, called Kidspiration. I found it useful for teaching math. I think it is also helpful tool for researchers whose participants are younger kids. I think it can be a useful data collection tool because kids may not always express their ideas clearly in words. Therefore, data collection can be supported by giving them a chance to express themselves in a different way (i.e. by representational media in Kidspiration or in similar tools).
Inspiration was available in IU Anyware until last moth. I have checked it recently, but could not find it. I hope IT people will update it soon.
Oh neat -- I really would like to know more around your decision to change the name of your blog. Intrigues me!!
ReplyDeleteI hope you found my new blog name (http://becomingreflexiveresearcher.blogspot.com/). I changed it because in the second chapter of Paulus, Lester and Dempster (2014), there was a suggestion about naming the blogs with a project name. I found it useful and reasonable. Previously, my blog's name was my real name. Since I currently have one blog, there is no problem right now. I mean I can easily identify that this blog is the one that I am writing my reflective thoughts. However, when I created more blogs with names which do not describe the project, then I may not easily identify a particular one. For example, if I kept my previous blog name (as serifesevis.blogspot.com) and if I created another blog and still wanted to use variation of my real name (let's say serife.blogspot.com, or sevis.blogspot.com). I won't be able to distinguish which one is for which project. So, I found the suggestion of using descriptive blog name so useful and changed my blog's name.
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