Week 11

What struck me about this week's blog post is the "theoretical tension here between experience, memory, and the sharing of knowledge". Too often, research places the greatest value on data - anything that is measurable and quantifiable. However, this is often done at the expense of preserving stories, and the breadth of knowledge that can be derived from them. I very strongly believe that there is invaluable knowledge that can be derived from experiences. Experiences, taken holistically, provide insight and information that no amount of quantitative data, surveys, or charts, could ever hope to provide.

While some research methods,  ethnography in particular, do leave space for stories, there is more often than not a reduction of the knowledge that is truly available. There are, as always, challenges that come from studies that produce stories as their results, and use these stories to communicate messages. A recent example that comes to mind is a study that was run by a university - the intention was to gather stories from folks who live in the surrounding neighborhood. However, only clips of long interviews were made available, and it is arguable that specific snippets were chosen to paint the university in a positive light. In this case, the stories are data that are preserved digitally, yet this does not protect them from targeted editing. This may lead to folks in 2112 receiving an inaccurate perception of what the research was actually about, and what the stories were actually trying to say. I suppose this reason, the vulnerability that collections of stories/data face when digitized, is why I still have a soft spot for also storing things in hard copy (however problematic this may be!).

Week 11

My raw data from my research will come in the form of video. I’m planning on taking that video and turning it into maps that show the paths that people take when visiting the library. I think ultimately it might be best to delete the videos after turning them into maps in order to protect the identities of the participants. With permission from the participants I’d like to make the maps available on the library shared drive in order for future librarians to be able to access it.

It would be nice to be able to document the thought processes of the library users, and their goals when visiting the library. My research does not focus as much on this because the main concern is for the physical use of the library.

Week 10: Information Experiments

Karl's post about the Justin Bieber cover reminded me of something that happened years ago with my daughter Madeline that has since fascinated me. As someone who rarely listens to popular radio, and considers her tastes to be fairly non-mainstream, I was surprised to hear my 18-month-old, mostly pre-verbal daughter clearly singing the song "Baby" by Justin Bieber. My mother actually recognized it, and looked up the music video on YouTube, which she then played for Madeline, who immediately began dancing and singing along. For at least a year after that Madeline would ask to watch "BeeBee" (a hybrid of "baby" and "Beiber-- I know, she's a genius) on at least daily basis. What struck me then was the sheer power of a pop song to get stuck in your head, no matter your age. I realize that "Baby" probably being blared out of car and shop speakers wherever we went up until that point, so it would have been nearly impossible to avoid it. But there were songs that I had played over and over again within our own home that have never resonated with Madeline, and what is it about that particular type of song that makes it stick around?
Clearly there is some sort of formula that must work, since the music industry continues to pump out and profit from these types of songs, and Owen Pallet penned a great essay about the musical theory behind Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" in 2014. There are even failed attempts at manufacturing them, like Rebecca Black's infamous "Friday", although at 91 million views and change, maybe that example is not such a "fail" after all.
But what I am interested in studying is whether or not certain songs can have a universal appeal, regardless of taste or age. In other words, is taste simply learned? Ideally there would be some kind of neurological component to this experiment to see how the brain would react, in case it differed from what the subjects would report. The independent variable in this study would be the song choice, and the dependent variable could be that we could play a cover of the 1st song by an alternative, less mainstream band to see the difference. So basically, what I want to find out is: does everyone secretly love Justin Bieber?

Week 9: Artifacts

There are so many artifacts that I would love to research that it is hard for me to choose. However, I think that I would like to explore the satirical news and media content site, Clickhole, which I have already mentioned in another blog post.
Created by the people from The Onion, content-wise Clickhole functions like a mix between Buzzfeed and Upworthy, and pretty much any other contemporary "news" site that pops up in your typical Facebook newsfeed. What makes it so fascinating to me is not only how consistently it makes me literally LOL, but the way that it so perfectly taps into the zeitgeist of contemporary internet culture. The format of The Onion is now out-of-date because people don't consume news the way that they used to, whereas Clickhole simply could not have existed until recently because of its very specific format and language. I would like to study what exactly it is that makes it so funny (if that is even possible), and the ways that it uses language and even metadata (i.e. #wow) to both blend in with and subvert its very format. It would also be interesting to observe the comments, to see who is or is not IN on the joke.

Week 10: Information Experiments (Althea)

The example that I have chosen to discuss here is not a conventional experiment but is definitely one related to information. Datta, Tsachantz and Datta (2015) who carried out the project and wrote the paper called it “Automated Experiments on Ad Privacy Settings: A Tale of Opacity, Choice, and Discrimination”. Google had come out with Ad settings as a way to allow users exercise some control over the profiles Google creates on users, and Datta, Tschantz and Datta (2015) wanted to find out how user behaviors, Google's ads and Ad Settings interact, and created an automated tool called AdFisher that can run browser based experiments and can conduct statistical analysis. 

The main idea that is that when a user changes settings in Ad settings, they also exert some choice over the profiles Google creates on users and the search results should reflect this change.

Datta, Tsachantz and Datta (2015) determined that there were three privacy properties that could support their methodology for finding causal relationships and they were: 1) Opacity, 2) Choice, and 3) Discrimination. They created two groups for statistical analysis, one of which receives experimental treatment  while the other remains a control, and other variables were changed accordingly to the property they were analyzing. I will describe their experimental variables for analyzing opacity below:

They decided to examine how much transparency/opacity Ad settings provided by checking whether visiting websites linked with certain interests could cause changes in the ads shown that is not reflected in the settings. The interests they chose to cover included but are not limited to, substance abuse, disabilities, infertility.

Null hypothesis: The two groups with the same ad settings receives ads from the same distribution despite being subjected to different experimental treatments

Independent variable: Visiting websites associated with certain interests

Dependent variable(s): Interests listed on Ad settings pages and the ads being displayed

Controlled variable: The control group did not visit the related sites

Week 11 Eleni Pallotta

Since most of my research will be done online through TPL's online catalogue, I do not expect there to be much research that cannot be easily documented and kept over a long period of time.  I plan to use Excel sheets to document research so that can easily be stored in the cloud (i.e. Dropbox) where it is most likely safe from computer crashes.  As for the interview part of my research (the more epistemology aspect), transcripts of the interviews done between myself and TPL librarians can be typed on a Microsoft Word document and also put into the cloud.  Furthermore, idealistically if my research was to be approved and implemented, depending on the results discovered, the TPL catalogue might change to reflex my findings.  In this sense, the online catalogue (for LGBTQ children's books) will always reflex my findings because changes would be made to have subject searches which were not in place before.

On a totally unrelated note, this week's topic reminded me a lot of a movie I recently watched, Hector and the Search for Happiness (which is also a book, just FYI!).  In the movie, Hector travels to China to search for happiness and tries to document what makes people happy.  I think it relates to this week's topic because happiness can arguably be something that is ultimately not measurable and unable to be document as concrete research to prove something.  It reminded me of David Philip's performance-based research and how it is very unique to the research and academic world.

(Retrieved from: http://dailynova.org/movie-review-hector-search-happiness/)

Week 11: Documentation and Experience

The kinds of records that my project will produce will be ethnographic. For my proposed research I intend to take intensive fieldnotes, photographic inventory, interviews/transcripts, and collections of documents. From an anthropological background, I have learned to store my research for physical documents, in a locked drawer or box, and the digital documents stored on a external drive, encrypted with a passcode for access.

For ethical concerns, as I will be dealing with National Team athletes, and a somewhat sensitive topic, I do intend to keep my participants anonymous. Therefore I will need a document that distinguishes a code and pseudo names to ensure that each participant’s identity will be kept private, which I will plan to store in an encrypted file. Along with this document I will keep the consent forms. While I could have an option to destroy the contents of this project after it is completed, I have yet to decide whether or not I will do this. I have done this in the past, and I am not sure if it was worth it. I might give the participants the option of whether or not they would like the data they provide me to be destroyed after a certain amount of time. This way I can adhere to my participants needs.

Week 10

I was having some trouble thinking of an experiment for this week and over the weekend my youngest cousin mentioned some of his friends have abandoned their smartphone for flip phones. This got me thinking about technology and how inescapable it is, especially for young people.

I worked for a while as a neurofeedback trainer. What is that you may ask?  Well, using the clients EEG (measured by placing electrodes on the person's head), we would target brain waves to increase/decrease and 'train' their brain to do so using visual and auditory cues, biofeedback (heart and breathing rates), and strategies taught to them during their sessions.  (If you want to know more about it, just drop me a line.  It's a pretty awesome process.)

Now the experiment I'm proposing here would be very expensive and time consuming.  So let's assume that I'm the richest woman in the world and I want nothing more than to improve the education process.  

I would select an average high school, and with the consent of all participants of course, I would have the students hooked up with electrodes, heart rate monitors and breathing monitors (it's really not as invasive as it sounds).  

At this school 2 classes would be randomly selected and I would record their baseline EEG and biofeedback.  Then the real fun begins!

One class would have students use only electronic devices for note taking/assignments (independent variable) and another class would exclusively use paper and pens for note taking/assignments (control).

The dependent variable would be the EEG and biofeedback data.  I think I can safely assume that the students who use electronic devices would should neurological and biological patterns indicating a decrease in focus from their baselines, whereas the control group will show equal or improved focus from their baselines overall. 

But I'm not insanely wealthy researcher, so I guess we'll never know for sure. 

Week 11 Blogging Question: Documentation and Experience

In my project, most records generated will be digitally logged. They will come in the form of recordings and electronic transcripts detailing the amount of harassment experienced by female gamers, as well as data on skill level which will be pulled from existing online public records on both the harasser and the harassed. If I were looking to preserve my findings, then I feel that the best method to do so would be to create a pen-and-paper copy of all the observations made during the research process. Preserving my results digitally will be trickier, as it is probably safe to assume that in the future, any particular means of data storage we employ now will be completely outdated (just look at floppy disks!).

But of course, it wouldn’t hurt to try.

Storing my data on a cloud, as well as on a USB drive will probably be a safe bet in preserving at least one record of my findings past ten years. Additionally, any recordings made should be deleted after being checked over (to verify the harassment), as players are not aware that they are being recorded for research purposes (and therefore have not given consent for their matches and conversations to be stored and possibly used for purposes outside of research). Furthermore, the appropriate steps to eliminate all traces of the recordings from hard drives will be taken. Plenty of care will also go into making sure players remain anonymous after both harassment and skill level have been assessed and recorded. 

Week Eleven: Sacred Thoughts

Anything that is not tangible is impossible to document.

Stream-of-conscious thinking, the way you come from an idea to a solution, things I call "micro-ideas" (the initial inspiration behind the more polished thought) are all things that are impossible to document. Perhaps some day, our brains will be hooked up to some kind of machine that can document every single thought we have (enter Orwellian philosophical discussion). Until then, we cannot possibly document these things. However interesting it may be to understand how a thought becomes an idea, I am grateful that these instant synapses are intangible and, at least for now, "undocumentable".

Week 10: Information-Related Experiment

Personally, I need white noise to concentrate on my studies. Some need complete silence. Others can write the next best-selling book in a busy coffee shop! 

If I were to research anything related to information, I would study the reading comprehension of students when given a passage of literature they have never seen before to read, and are then asked to answer questions relating to reading comprehension on the passage (name of lead character, antagonist, any tribulations the main character has had to overcome, etc) in either two situations: total silence, or with background "white noise". 

A group of students would be randomly chosen then assigned to read the passage in either of the settings. 

The control group are the students who are in a room with no white noise.

The variable group are the students who are in a room with white noise. 

I would be interested to see which group of students performs better! 

Week 10

Generally my research interests are sociologically based, and I like to look at how communities act over long periods of time without manipulating any variables. I would be interested in learning about how high students who are removed from regular classes due to behaviour would react to a different way of being graded. The experiment would require the teachers to have non-judgemental one on one conversations with the students about the work they hand in instead of offering formal letter grades. The only feedback that these students would get would be these conversations, but the work would be separately graded by another teacher. I would want to see if the performance of these students improves over time (the dependent variable). The independent variable would be the method of giving these students feedback. I wouldn’t place any controls on the experiment. A control group might be ideal, but might create some ethical problems, and these students might also influence each other when discussing the feedback they receive.

Week 10

The study that I'm proposing for this course's final assignment would be considered an information experiment. The purpose of my proposed study is to gain insight into how post secondary students engage with academic information resources. In particular, I'm interested in how efficient students are at navigating institution produced websites to locate certain pieces of academic information. My experiment would consist of a series of one on one interviews where a student is asked a series of questions about their information seeking behaviour. Observation sessions would also be set up for these students, where they would be asked to perform certain tasks with an information resource (e.g. find a course timetable on the Registrar's Office's website) while their clicks are measured quantitatively and qualitatively.

My proposed study would be considered a traditional experiment as it would occur in a controlled setting. There are many variables that would need to be controlled for when recruiting participants for the study. Some of these include: student's year of study, familiarity with the information resource, comfort level with technology. Some of the independent variables of this study include: the list of tasks that the participant is asked to complete, the information resource (e.g. which website) that is used, the technological resources available to the participant (e.g. no use of google). Some of the dependent variables include: how many clicks it takes the participant to complete the task, whether or not the participant is able to complete the tasks successfully.

Armed with the results and information learned from this first experiment, changes could be made to the information resource in question, and a second round of this experiment could be held to see if these improvements made an impact. Essentially, I want to learn information through an experiment, that will help facilitate better access to information.

Week 10 Blogging Question: Information Experiments

In the same vein as Alan's example of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's experimental track "Take Five", I also want to use an example of musicians manipulating variables that we would probably see as essential in order to produce a great song. For Brubeck and his bandmates, this independent variable was time signature, and for Kurt Hugo Schneider and Kina Grannis, it was the instruments they chose to use. Instead of going for traditional strings or percussion instruments for their cover of Justin Bieber's What Do You Mean, Kurt and Kina opted to use things you can find around the house like keys, a garbage can, a coin, and so forth. Of course, the dependent variable in this example was the performance. Would it sound good?

You be the judge:

As for me, I loved it. Not only was this a creative way to cover a hit song, it also ended up sounding sublime. In terms of controls, I would say that everything from the lyrics, to the melody and rhythm remained the same. In other words: same track (except better!). 

Week 10: Information Experiments

In the project “Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester” Foster and Gibson write about their ethnographic project on finding out more on how undergraduate students at the University of Rochester conduct research, their habits, and library needs. I believe this is an information-related experiment because Foster and Gibson are “interested in how students write their research papers and what services, resources, and facilities would be most useful to them,” (Foster and Gibson 2007, p. 5).

In this study, these are the variables I would identify:

Independent – undergraduate students (never changes)

Dependent – How students’ research/student practices (dependent on the students) and how the librarians encouraged help through advertising, deciding on what they could do to improve student participation in librarian assistance by testing timing, encouraging students through free stuff (cookies/coffee), and using different outreaching techniques (e.g. IM, reference desk, etc.) (dependent on the librarians and how the students use these) 

Controlled – the space of the library (a controlled space that never changes)

I would see this as an experiment because they are testing how undergraduate students do their research and how they can help improve this as librarians. This in particular is a unique experiment because it does not fall into traditional standards. First and foremost it is an ethnographic study, researching student habits. However, I think it can be considered an experiment because it has the independent variable of the undergraduate students, the controlled space of the library, and finally the dependent variables of the researchers changing the ways they reach out to students and discovering what is most effective. In the end they discovered that the best technique for helping students was through face-to-face contact (2007, p.19). They also came up with a list of ways for improving their library to create a “student-centered academic library,” (2007, p. 83).

Of course, this was based on only part of their study, as there are many dependent variables that they include. I chose this specific experiment because I liked that it took an ethnographic approach and it shows that experiments can appear in more than just a scientific study.

Resource: 

Foster, N. F., & Gibbons, S. L. (2007). Studying students: The undergraduate research project at the University of Rochester. Assoc of Cllge & Rsrch Libr.

Week 10 Eleni Pallotta

This week, I thought I would share the results of a research study I conducted with a group in my undergraduate Research Methods course.  We looked at Opinions on Formal vs. Informal Assessment within the Field of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

•           Early Childhood being ages 0-8
•           Formal Assessment meaning standardized tests, quizzes, etc.
•           Informal Assessment meaning, for example, assessing a child on their counting skills while they are at play in their classroom during play time

Basically, the purpose of this project was to compare and analyze the different perspectives of ECE profressionals and Early Childhood Studies (ECS) students’ views on formal and informal assessment for children aged 0-8.  In other words, we wanted to see if professionals who have a lot of experience in the field have a different perspective on how to assess children vs. students’ perspectives based mostly on what they learn in school about assessment.

•          Our Independent Variable was Amount of Experience (i.e. ECS student vs. ECE professional)
•          Our Dependent Variable was Opinions/Views on Assessment
•      Our Controlled Variable was the field of Early Childhood Education (because only people who work with children within this age group qualified for the research study)
•         Our Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the amount of experience or years (independent variable) working with children in the field of early childhood would influence the subjects’ opinions (dependent variable) and how they view formal vs. informal assessments used for children between the ages of 0-8.

We collected data through an online survey which we sent out through email to ECE professionals and ECS students.  We found that:

•          Our sample size wasn’t big enough to produce a statistically significant difference in opinions on formal vs. informal assessment

However, we did find some other information such as:

•          ECS students seemed to believe that the age of the child determines the major benefits the use of standardized assessment can have on children 0-8 years old, while ECE professionals seemed to believe that formal and informal testing used together determines the major benefits the use of standardized testing can have on children 0-8 years old (qualitative).
•          We also found that more ECE professionals considered other aspects when providing their reasoning for their ratings including disabilities and cultural differences in comparison with ECS students.

I wanted to use this example because I think it demonstrates that while not all findings in a research project directly support your hypothesis, the data you collect may provide you with information you were not expecting to find…in this case, for example, the difference in HOW, WHEN, and with WHAT AGE GROUP different forms of assessment should be used.  I think it is good to keep your mind open to finding information other than what you are "expecting" to find as a researcher.  

(Retrieved from: http://www.parenting-journals.com/2150/helping-your-child-prepare-for-tests/)

Week 9

Personal identification documents are intriguing to me and I think they would provide a great deal of insight as to how we classify ourselves.  The complexities and variances of the human experience are endlessly interesting to me, and the evolution of personal identification, within Canada and abroad, tells both individual stories as well as a big picture of our societies.  

I would focus on the drivers license, even though the historical scope of study is more narrow than it would be with a birth certificate, it contains a goldmine of information that is irresistible!   
Thinking about when the car was invented (1886- according to wiki) the regulations about who could drive have changed dramatically over time.  The number of people with drivers licenses would show us things like affordability and prevalence of vehicles at any given moment in history.  The evolution of the ID would show us changes in what information was included, when photographs were first used and what types of cameras were used, where they were issued and so on.  How many licenses belonged to women and how does this data change among different countries?  

In addition to containing data that reflects the composition of our society and social issues over time, drivers licenses tells a part of the story of government policy, surveillance and technology. How has the way government classifies their citizens changed and why?  What were the first restrictions on driving and how have these policies evolved?  What materials have been used to make drivers licenses and what can these tell us about the economy, trade and environment?

I'm sure these questions could be answered in other ways, but using drivers licenses to answer them adds another dimension to our understanding of the world.  Plus, think about how many hilariously bad photos would be enjoyed in the process!

Week 9

I would be interested in looking at magazines for women as my artefact. Last summer I stayed at a cottage with my family, and I ran out of reading material. My cousin had brought a magazine (Cosmopolitan) and gave it to me to read. I was surprised by how much of the magazine was dedicated to explaining to women all the things that were wrong with them (in their appearance, their personality, their work, their sex lives, and their relationships) and how they could fix these things (by purchasing certain things such as cosmetics, or by taking the advice of the columnists in the magazine). I’m honestly not certain what I would hope to learn from it, but I would like to look at the methods that they use to persuade women that they are not good enough. Even if my research was only to help people to think critically about these magazines I would consider it to be worth the work.  

Week 9: Stories Told By Artifacts (Althea)

If I had the choice and resources to based my research on an artifact or text, I would like to do it on a cultural text - a movie called Salmer fra Kjøkkenet, or Kitchen Stories. I was introduced to this movie by a professor teaching research methods during my undergraduate studies, and it left a strong impression. I wished we had the time to analyze this movie closely.

It is a 2003 Norwegian film, in which it depicts Swedish efficiency researchers studying how Norwegian bachelors utilize their kitchen (by sitting on an umpire's chair and observing from above). *SPOILER ALERT* One of the protagonists, the researcher, eventually gets off the chair and forms a human connection with his subject.

There are four points of interests that I have identified.

1. During the movie, the viewer will notice that the Swedes and the Norwegians seem to have an antagonistic relationship throughout the movie from the way interactions between Swedes and Norwegians are portrayed. It could give an insight towards how a Norwegian (the director) understood the post-war relations between the two countries.
2. The viewer may also gain interest in the idea of efficiency research, which was an actual area of interest during the post-war period, and further research the topic and compare it to what they have seen in the movie.
3. A researcher may choose to think about whether observation as a data collection method is impossible or undesirable particularly when the subject is a human. If not, what other kinds of methods would be more ethical or effective? 
4. The viewer may also question the validity of the research results that the efficiency researchers obtain when all they do is map out and record what they can see from one room in the entire house. I mean, is the kitchen necessarily the only place in the house where food preparation or consumption take place?

Week 9

Given the past two blogs and a few recent assignments, I've come to realize how bad I am at choosing a topic when given free reign and no parameters. I suppose I'm so used to thinking of ideas that fit within strict criteria that I've loosened my grip on what actually captures my interest. Isn't that worrisome? Here's hoping our interests continue to be developed within, and outside of, academia.

With that being said, I think the text(s) that I'd like to study would be a religious text, of any religion really. The reason this interests me is because I was raised without the presence of religion - very few members of my family practice Buddhism, and those that do experience it subjectively. Give this fact, I think it would be interesting to study the origin and prevalence of different texts, without any personal investment in the writings and teachings of the text. Particularly, an objective view would lend itself to research into any chances that have occurred to the texts over time. I'd like to look at how these texts came to be, how they were duplicated, how they were distributed, and what their migration patterns look like. I think this research would have to cover a very long span of time. More interesting is the range of technological advances that would need to be taken into consideration. Presumably, the duplication and distribution of various religious texts would have been done through methods such as transcription by hand, to printing presses, to current day digital platforms.

Week 9: Stories Told By Artifacts

I, like some other cool people here in our group, was also part of Matt Price and Matt Ratto’s Culture and Technology class last semester. Our semester-long project involved analyzing multiple dimensions of almost any artifact we wanted to tackle.

I chose the contact lens.

This artifact interested me because the contact lens, in my mind, had only recently come into being. I mean, how could it not be recent? Just the technology to create it must be sophisticated (a soft, miniature lens that fits snugly onto your eye?!), and the idea itself must have been thought up long after the invention of glasses due to that limitation.

What’s interesting is that the contact lens actually has a long line of history dating back to 1508 when Leonardo da Vinci first came up with the concept (for reference: my guess was 500 years off). I also learned other things I would not have otherwise: how a contact lens is made, what type of professionals are involved in its creation, as well as distribution and patterns of use around the world. For myself, there weren’t many complications, and finding the answers usually just involved scouring the Internet for the facts and data I needed. Occasionally, the answers would be hidden within videos (i.e. the specifics of the manufacturing process and the tools required to make a contact lens).

Bigger questions started coming up when I looked into the political and economic dimensions of the contact lens. Questions like how they can be used as a determinant for social standing, and the multiple reasons to wear (or not wear) contact lenses beyond just eyesight.

Week 9: Stories Told By Artifacts

Last semester when I took Culture & Technology I we had to develop a research project based on an artifact (object). I chose to do my project on my Mizuno Frenzy fastpitch bat. This project was by far the most interesting research I have done. Looking up information about the Mizuno fastpitch bat was intriguing because there were so many different factors that went into the bat that I had never realized. For example the material make up (carbon fibre and where specifically it comes from), the invention/maker of the Japanese company, the socio-cultural aspects of the bat, the physics/science behind the bat, and I just never realized how one artifact could tell such a big story.

Some of the complications I had while doing research was that there wasn't a lot of information about composite fastpitch bats, in fact a lot of papers were either written on baseball bats or aluminum bats. Also, the history of a fastpitch bat was extremely hard to come by. However, this made my research all the more interesting because I realized that it wasn't just the information you found, but the information you didn't find that said a lot about an object. 

The big story that I found about my object was about the gender narrative. For me it was about showing how the fastpitch bat was made to represent women, and the baseball bat men. I took a socio-cultural (and symbolic) approach showing how the Fastpitch bat was seen as lesser object than the baseball bat through the history (or narratives of the bats), through the material and make up of the bat and through the advertising of the bat. I showed that the fastpitch bat was unnatural/untraditional/and all together a crutch that women relied on to get power. Meanwhile the baseball bat is seen as natural, traditional, and a tool used by men to exert their power.

This research project proved to be so interesting to me because it made me think of the object I have been using all my life in so many different ways and had I not researched this artifact it would have just remained an object I use. Now I see my bat as a controversial object, however after my "big story" I will not let my bat define me and my strength and I would advocate for a change in the way the fastpitch bat is advertised to women/men. Researching an artifact is worth the time, because although you are not focusing on a group of people, in the end you kind of are (along with so many other things) which makes the object all the more exciting.

Week 8 - Open Topic (Althea)

For this week's open topic blog post, I've decided that I'm going to post this (maybe philosophical) question that I've had since doing my first research project as an undergraduate student:

Why do research?

At least, research in social sciences. This is not to say I don't think research in social sciences is useful at all. There exist research projects that have drawn attention to problematic statements and shed light on problematic issues that exist in society e.g. Philippe Bourgois' Righteous Dopefiend. Those are research that exists to problem solve.

The kind of research that I question are those which pursue knowledge for knowledge's sake and do not necessarily forward any kind of intellectual conversation. I come across such research all the time while doing projects and assignments, and it is frustrating. It's like the researcher never cared to think "So what?" when they were planning their research. This is part of the reason why I don't ever consider pursuing a doctorate, because I don't feel confident about being able to contribute anything useful to the field that I choose to be in. 

However, at the same time, I wonder if my strong feelings about this issue come from having a different opinion from the researcher about what "useful research" means. Should we practice reflexivity and try to understand what the researcher thinks is "good research" from his or her point of view?

Week 8 Blogging Question: Open Topic

For this week, the “open topic” really baffled me, and it reminded me of how lost someone can feel when writing an essay with no prompt (*cough* Keilty). It took years, but I finally settled on trying to find some example of research being done without immediate academic or scholarly purpose.

Beyond gaming, I also have an interest in sports leagues like the NBA, which actually involves multiple research methods on every level. There’s the data being gathered on shots, passes, assists, and so forth on a game-to-game basis by scorekeepers and interpreted by coaches, scouts, writers, and fans alike. There’s also the (often unreliable) research conducted by sports writers on the off-court life of a player, all still pertinent to the game as a whole because the relationships, actions, and interactions outside of what we see on television can play a tremendous part in “movement” – the trading, signing, or waiving of a specific player. You can even look at what the average fan does to keep up in the NBA as a form of casual research: checking the box score, their favourite player’s line for the night, and the upcoming schedule of their team.

Do you guys have any similar examples of research and research methods outside of the classroom?

Week 8 - Research and Policy

Working in the public library system makes you keenly aware of how things like funding and policy shape your workplace and career.  The demand to quantify and prove your job worth through research and measurable outcomes has grown stronger in many fields, particularly ones that rely on government funding (ahem, libraries).  Which brings us to research.

Research is a wonderful means of expanding knowledge and strengthening/proving theories, However, when it comes to informing policy and budgets, the reliance on research can be inconsistent.  For example, the city of Toronto allocates a massive chunk of our budget to Toronto Police, despite decreased crime, internal corruption and a lack of accountability for how the funds are spent.  Whereas TPL must do survey weeks, record and manage data about library service use, while being handed a budget that does very little beyond maintaining the status quo and undervaluing the work we do.

I suppose my point here is that the research and data available is telling us that we don't need a stronger police presence, but it doesn't seem to play a part in the decisions being made by our government.  I could even go as far back as the early days of the Harper government's commitment to oil extraction, while ignoring the many scientific studies warning us that climate change is real and urgently needs our attention.  What good is good research if it's being ignored?

So that's what I've been thinking about in the research world lately.  Why yes, I am jaded.  Thank you for noticing.

Week 9: Stories told by artefacts

One thing that has always made me equally curious and revolted is other people's garbage! There is so much to learn from it. That would be the area of my study. I would take the biggest producers of garbage and pair them against the smallest producers of garbage, and find out why there is such a discrepancy between the two. Apparently this is already a thing: garbology ! I've always been curious about where trash goes! It must go somewhere. How fortunate we are that we can simply forget about it and live in blissful ignorance. This is a particularly pressing question, especially after Michael Moore called Toronto's garbage out for contributing to the Flint, Michigan crisis.

Anyway, I'm a weirdo and I would study garbage.

Week 8

For my open topic blog post I’d like to write a little bit about research in the workplace. One of my hopes for my future is to be able to engage with the library I work at through regular research. Research in the workplace appeals to me because it allows for a chance to get to know the population a bit before deciding on questions and research methods. I work at a small library, and I’ve noticed that the majority of the research is based on numbers and surveys instead of face-to-face interactions such as feedback groups. My biggest concern about this type of research is that I don’t know anything about how to go about getting ethics approval. Academic research is interesting and important, but it seems to be more strictly regulated than research in the workplace.