My portfolio is written as a paper consisting of introduction, problems, solutions, and summary. The order of posts is inverse. It means that you must scroll down to the bottom of this page and start reading.
Also, you can follow the below links.
1. Introduction
2. Problems and solutions (Exercise section) - I consider unclear points during the course as problems that I need to understand.
- Exercise 1
- Exercise 2
- Exercise 3
3. My professional identity
4. Summary
Thank you for reading!
Dao Thanh Chung - 251213, IMPIT student
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Summary
Research methodologies play the most crucial role in every scientific research and decide a research will be successful or not. In my opinion, they help scientists not to go wrong ways in research, lead them to expected results, even discover new theories that they do not predict. Also, I am sure that professional scientists have always got good skills in research methodologies. That is why I think this course is very useful for students inexperienced or having little research experience. It is designed quite well to equips students for researching in Computer Science.
Firstly, professional identity and definition of researching in CS are presented in the first module. In next module, students can understand clearly how many processes there are when they start researching. They must find problem statement, purpose and their own research question and decide what is the research methodology that is appropriate to their research. Also, literature review should be considered carefully because it helps them know state-of-the-art of fields that they are focusing on. Students are divided into small groups and work on their expert group in third module and they present their finding of research methodology in fourth module. In final module, communication skills and qualities of research are introduced to let students know how important soft skills are.
I understand almost content of the course and some confusions which I have during the lectures are solved through three exercises that I present in the previous part. Furthermore, my professional identity is analyzed and described in the last section.
Thank you for reading my portfolio!
Firstly, professional identity and definition of researching in CS are presented in the first module. In next module, students can understand clearly how many processes there are when they start researching. They must find problem statement, purpose and their own research question and decide what is the research methodology that is appropriate to their research. Also, literature review should be considered carefully because it helps them know state-of-the-art of fields that they are focusing on. Students are divided into small groups and work on their expert group in third module and they present their finding of research methodology in fourth module. In final module, communication skills and qualities of research are introduced to let students know how important soft skills are.
I understand almost content of the course and some confusions which I have during the lectures are solved through three exercises that I present in the previous part. Furthermore, my professional identity is analyzed and described in the last section.
Thank you for reading my portfolio!
My professional identity (Computer science)
By Adams et al.[1], professional identity is defined as sets of beliefs, attitudes and understanding about roles in a certain work. In my opinion, professional identity of people is often changed at least until 30 years old because they are quite easy to quit a job and find new environment. It means that their professional identity may be changed. However, in my case, I think I am still working on Computer science now and in the future. Therefore, in the journey towards becoming CS professionals, I need to develop a range of beliefs and attitudes of my future profession. For example, I want to become a lecturer or professor in CS, so I need deep understanding and clear attitudes in CS.
Regarding external aspects of CS professional identity, I have got bachelor degree in CS and some programming skills in Java, C. Through 4 years of my bachelor study, my programming skills and algorithms are quite good and I believe that I can study new programming language fast. Besides, I have teaching experience in some courses such as ICT foundation and C programming. However, in internal aspects of CS professional identity, I think my knowledge is enough to do research in some areas, but my research skill is not good. As a result, I do not know where are current problems, how to solve problems in practical way, and how to present my ideas and solutions to other people. even my professor.
I think I lack some skills such as communication skills, time management, and critical thinking. I can be a master of current state-of-the-art knowledge, but I can apply, analyze, and evaluate in special circumstances in which the knowledge appears. It seems that I will not have CS professional identity. I hope in my master course, I can perfect my skills. Anyway, this course - Research method in CS - benefits me in aspects of research methodologies, research processes and some soft skills.
My current research field is medical image processing and I am still working on it in the future. A method often applied in this field is experimental. I am considering how case study and focus group can be used in medical imaging.
[1]Adams et al., 2006; Lingard et al., 2002
[Exercise 3] How can ethnography be applied to researching ethnocomputing?
- Exercise 4 (19/10): How can ethnography be applied to researching ethnocomputing?
Through this exercise, I know exactly what is the ethnography concept. I do not confuse it with phenomenography.
Solution:
Ethnography is a qualitative research design focused on exploring cultural phenomena and ethnocomputing is the study of the interactions between computing and culture. People of each country have different styles of using computing, so the way in which computers are used is considered as culture. Therefore, we can apply ethnography to find out interactions.
For example, we can conduct interviews to explore:
- How many hours people use computers everyday.
- Do people prefer emails to traditional mails?
- Computers really help people relax?
Through this exercise, I know exactly what is the ethnography concept. I do not confuse it with phenomenography.
Solution:
Ethnography is a qualitative research design focused on exploring cultural phenomena and ethnocomputing is the study of the interactions between computing and culture. People of each country have different styles of using computing, so the way in which computers are used is considered as culture. Therefore, we can apply ethnography to find out interactions.
For example, we can conduct interviews to explore:
- How many hours people use computers everyday.
- Do people prefer emails to traditional mails?
- Computers really help people relax?
[Exercise 2] Figure out the difference between phenomenography and phenomenology
- Exercise 1 (19/10): Figure out the difference between phenomenography and phenomenology.
Through this exercise, I understand thoroughly which is phenomenology method and which is phenomenography one.
Solution: Similarity: their object is human experience
Difference:
- Phenomenology is a philosophical method in which philosophers focus on investigating their own experience.
+ Phenomenographers adopt an empirical orientation and investigate the experience of others.
- The focus of phenomenology is the essence of the phenomenon.
+ The focus of phenomenography is the essence of the experiences and previous perceptions of the phenomenon.
- Data collection methods of phenomenography are mainly interviewing.
+ Data collection methods of phenomenology are interviews, diaries, drawings, and observation.
Reference:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenography
Through this exercise, I understand thoroughly which is phenomenology method and which is phenomenography one.
Solution: Similarity: their object is human experience
Difference:
- Phenomenology is a philosophical method in which philosophers focus on investigating their own experience.
+ Phenomenographers adopt an empirical orientation and investigate the experience of others.
- The focus of phenomenology is the essence of the phenomenon.
+ The focus of phenomenography is the essence of the experiences and previous perceptions of the phenomenon.
- Data collection methods of phenomenography are mainly interviewing.
+ Data collection methods of phenomenology are interviews, diaries, drawings, and observation.
Reference:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenography
[Exercise 1] Build a metaphor of a research
- Exercise 1 (28/9): Build a metaphor of a research as a house, journey, theater or as an analogy of another everyday thing for illustrating the roles and interrelations of problem statement, purpose, and the four aspects of research design.
Solution:
I choose a metaphor as a journey of finding the way studying abroad with a scholarship.
Studying in Europe is the best choice because of modern environment, multicultural activities, and free tuition fee. However, we need scholarship for living expense.
----> Background in the context of research questions.
By giving an example related to scholarship, I can understand the differences of two kinds of background: one in problem statement and another one in the context of research questions. The background of the context is narrower than one in problem statement. It means that you will focus on problems that are more detail and smaller.
Solution:
I choose a metaphor as a journey of finding the way studying abroad with a scholarship.
In my country – Vietnam, in order to get a scholarship of
studying abroad, anyone must prepare carefully with many steps. Therefore, I
will tell these processes as a metaphor of a research.
The education system in my country is not good, so knowledge
studying from schools is quite out of date. Current reality is that if students
want to work after graduating from universities, they need to training for a
long time or work with low salaries. Therefore, many people find chances of
studying abroad. After graduating, they come back to the country and can be
employed by prestigious companies with high salaries.
----> Background and motivation of problem statement.
However, almost all people are not rich, so they need
scholarships for studying abroad. The problem is how to get a scholarship for
studying?
----> This is the problem.
Scholarship will help you have confortable life of studying
and your parents have no financial burden.
----> This is the purpose.
In order to obtain a scholarship, we start finding information
and making many questions:
- Where I can get scholarship information?
- Which country I will study abroad?
- How to prepare a good profile for applying scholarships?
----> This is the question. (This step is crucial and
will decide the result of scholarship)
- Finding information from the Internet
- Asking alumni for experience and information
- Studying English well and joining extra-curricular
activities.
----> This is the method.
In order to apply, I need a requirement of English skill
such as IELTS 6.5 or Toefl 95.
----> This is a constraint.
[Exercise section] Problems and solutions
Through the introduction as summary of all modules, I think I understand almost content of the course. However, there are some concepts and methods still making me confused. One of them is the differences of two kinds of background in problem statement and the context of research questions. Another problem is how to distinguish phenomenology, phenomenography, and ethnography.
I choose survey method to solve my problems. I find definition and explanation from some sources and summarize the results in the exercise sections.
- Exercise 1 (28/9): Build a metaphor of a research as a house, journey, theater or as an analogy of another everyday thing for illustrating the roles and interrelations of problem statement, purpose, and the four aspects of research design.
- Exercise 1 (19/10): Figure out the difference between phenomenography and phenomenology.
- Exercise 4 (19/10): How can ethnography be applied to researching ethnocomputing?
I choose survey method to solve my problems. I find definition and explanation from some sources and summarize the results in the exercise sections.
- Exercise 1 (28/9): Build a metaphor of a research as a house, journey, theater or as an analogy of another everyday thing for illustrating the roles and interrelations of problem statement, purpose, and the four aspects of research design.
- Exercise 1 (19/10): Figure out the difference between phenomenography and phenomenology.
- Exercise 4 (19/10): How can ethnography be applied to researching ethnocomputing?
[Module 5] Communication skills and qualities of research
In my opinion, communication is the most important skill for scientists because it can help their researches become active and other people understand easily. Also, scientists having good communication skill can think and solve problems faster because they can make relationship among data easily. Communication skill presented in the fifth module really helps me understand how to make a good presentation and explanation of my own researches.
Problems given in the lecture are structure, language, figures and oral presentation. One of tips is to make everything simple and clear. You should show clear content with TOC, explain all figures and tables written in your slides. Regarding oral presentation, you should know comprehensively your content, master it and get fascinated from it. In order to transmit your presentation well, you should know who is your audience and pay attention to skills such as eye contact and speak slowly.
On the other hand, qualities of research is explained in this module. It means that scientists must know where is the limitations of their researches and how they can manage them. The qualities are evaluated based on four aspects: credibility - belief dimension, reliability - technical dimension, validity - focus dimension, and significance and relevance - contextual dimension. When scientists know where is their limitation, they will not go wrong ways next time, even find out new researches.
Problems given in the lecture are structure, language, figures and oral presentation. One of tips is to make everything simple and clear. You should show clear content with TOC, explain all figures and tables written in your slides. Regarding oral presentation, you should know comprehensively your content, master it and get fascinated from it. In order to transmit your presentation well, you should know who is your audience and pay attention to skills such as eye contact and speak slowly.
On the other hand, qualities of research is explained in this module. It means that scientists must know where is the limitations of their researches and how they can manage them. The qualities are evaluated based on four aspects: credibility - belief dimension, reliability - technical dimension, validity - focus dimension, and significance and relevance - contextual dimension. When scientists know where is their limitation, they will not go wrong ways next time, even find out new researches.
[Module 4] Presentation of expert groups
In week 5&6 (module 4), expert groups present the research methodologies. There are many methodologies introduced in this two weeks such as phenomenology, field experiment, case study, and focus group. Before the presentation, I know only experimental research that applied in my bachelor thesis and the grounded theory. Below is definition of many different research methodologies that I hear in week 5&6.
- Phenomenology is the study of different people perception on a specific phenomena.
- Field experiment is the study of applying the scientific method to experimentally examine an intervention in the real world rather than in the laboratory.
- Case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit.
- Experimental method is the process of observation, defining problem, propose hypothesis, test hypothesis and developing theory.
- Focus group is the process of grouping interacting individuals having some common interest and using groups' interaction as a way to gain information about a specific issue.
- Design science is dosing research by designing something new and trying to solve some real world problem.
- Artifact and document analysis is a tool used by qualitative and ethnographic researchers.
Due to hear many methodologies, I sometimes confuse some concepts and definition. For example, I do not know what are the differences between phenomenology and phenomenography. Ethnography is a keyword making me confuse as well.
[Module 3] Expert group
I belong to the group investigating the grounded theory that focuses on data to find theories. My tasks are making the introduction and learning how to use software for collecting data. We have 4 times of meeting group. In the first time, we discuss the main idea of grounded theory together and list tasks such as the introduction, historical background, philosophical stance and key techniques. In next meeting, we combine all tasks and each member presents for each other. We discuss scenarios for the presentation of expert groups and make dialogues for our conversion in the third meeting. In last meeting, we practice for the presentation.
My task is mainly to think the conversation and learn how to put the script of the conversation into Atlas.ti - qualitative data collection software. Through using the software, I explore the way of observation and analysis in the set of much data. Also, I understand partially how to make relationship among entities.
I think our group present the grounded theory successfully and fascinatingly. We have done to introduce briefly the core concept of the grounded theory, the software for coding, and a research plan using the grounded theory.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
[Module 2] Flow of research: problem statement --> purpose --> questions --> methods
When you are interested in a problem and you want to research to solve this problem, you must follow some steps of researching in order to get good and practical results. Researching does not mean that you find out the solution and stop this research immediately. The second module gives students the flow of research consisting of problem statement, purpose, research questions, and research methods. Also, literature review and making bibliography are presented as hands-on skills for scientists.
Problem statement is a step of finding backgrounds, scenarios, and social situations for your research. Your motivation should be given in problem statement as well. It must show what is general problems of your research. Also, it helps other scientists position where your research belongs to. In purpose part, you should show your way to approach the general problems. It should be a unique and original way. Regarding research questions, it is the most important part because you must describe your own problems and finding here and make questions whose answers will reach the purpose of your research. In the research methods, you will choose an appropriate methodology for your research such as experimental research, focus group or survey.
In my bachelor thesis, I followed steps of writing such as abstract, introduction and problems. Now I understand that problem statement and purpose must be presented in the introduction part. Research questions are given in the problem and approach parts. Research methodologies help you write in your experiment, results, and evaluation.
When I hear the lecture of this module, I confused problem statement and the context part of research questions. I saw that we must present backgrounds in both problem statement and the context part. I do not know what are the differences of two kinds of backgrounds.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
[Module 1] Computer Science and Scientist
What is the Computer Science and how to define a scientist in this field is main contents of the first module. Firstly, professional identity is introduced with external and internal aspects that help students understand briefly who they will become what they should have in the future if they choose CS as their professional. Then, the definition of CS is presented as a subject of research that studies what computers can do. Scientific research is classified as positivist, interpretive, critical, and design science in which CS is positioned is explained in the next part of module. Finally, research plan and how to organize and write it are given an introduction in the last part.
In my opinion, the first module is the most interesting and useful because it help me locate where I am in CS and review what I actually did in my bachelor degree. Before this course, I did not have a clear definition of CS and I could not distinguish between computer science and information systems (IS). Now I know that CS is the study of what computers are doing and can do, but IS is the research of what people can do and apply with computers. Also, I recognize that what I studied is not really something related to CS. Therefore, I know that I need to change my study and aim at a subject belonging to CS.
Introduction
Research is a process of investigation or experimentation focused on the interpretation and discovery of facts or revision of current theories. Purpose of researches is to help increase our understanding and knowledge of a certain issue or topic [1]. Therefore, in order to keep going on the right way of the goal of research that produces deep understanding or new knowledge, we need research methodologies (research methods).
There are many research methods whose objectives and characteristics are quite different from others. Each research field often uses certain methodologies, but normally, researchers must survey what kind of methods suitable for their researches. A logical and reasonable methodology can guide researchers to correct results, even new theories. Moreover, it helps the researchers save their time and other people can understand and position the researches easily.
I am a master student in Computer Science, so in this paper, I aim mainly at research methodologies in CS. In the remains of introduction, I present briefly what is scientific research in CS, steps of researching, family of research approaches, key methodologies, and qualities of researches through summarizing the content of "Research methods in Computer Science" class [2]. Furthermore, I give my unclear points during the course as problems that I need to work on more in order to understand clearly.
[1] The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Friday, September 28, 2012
The first post!!!
Hello!
I think I should start with my personal information.
My name is Dao, Thanh Chung. Plz call me Chung.
I am an IMPIT student of Uni. of Eastern Finland (UEF).
I have never written something like an academic blog before, so I think it is a good chance for me to studying and writing. I hope I will write interesting posts, useful knowledge, or even funny story of my daily life. Hope you will follow.
Kiitos!
I think I should start with my personal information.
My name is Dao, Thanh Chung. Plz call me Chung.
I am an IMPIT student of Uni. of Eastern Finland (UEF).
I have never written something like an academic blog before, so I think it is a good chance for me to studying and writing. I hope I will write interesting posts, useful knowledge, or even funny story of my daily life. Hope you will follow.
Kiitos!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)